Screech Owls own Snakes as Pets

Screech Owls are adorable, with their stubby tiny bodies, pokey little ear tufts, large wide eyes, and a continuous air of astonishment on their faces. These birds are non-migratory and live in pairs in the same nests all through summer and winter. When it becomes dark, they're just as vicious as they are adorable, hunting crickets, beetles, and tiny rodents. But wait, there's more.

Eastern Screech Owls live across eastern North America. They are noted for their tiny stature, being just 15-25cm tall, and their incredibly loud screeching. They are, however, skilled predators, swooping on quiet wings and grabbing prey under the cover of darkness, as are all owls.

The birds don't only hunt for themselves during nesting season. Adults bring their chicks home food, which occasionally contains still-wriggling blind snakes, a tiny reptile that resembles an unusually long earthworm. The Texas Blind Snake appears to be immune to the screech owls' claws and when these snakes make their way inside the nest's litter, they provide excellent company.

There are over 400 species of Texas blind snakes (also known as threads snakes) and they are sometimes mistaken for worms. They're usually under 30cm long and spend most of their time burrowing into the ground. They aren't entirely blind, despite their name, but they are near — the snakes use their tongues and nostrils to seek for microscopic bugs, which they hoover up with their strange forward-and-back swinging jaws.

Scientists watched the owls' nests for a length of time, perplexed by the owls' snake-sparing behaviour. While some of the blind snakes were eaten by the owl chicks, the majority burrowed under the detritus at the bottom of the nest, where they would remain for days, hidden from the birds' sight, and beak.

So, the researchers asked, was the presence of the snakes beneficial to the growing chicks? It appeared that the reptiles were consuming potentially bothersome bugs that may otherwise become parasites or contaminate the chicks' diet.

They observed, weighed, and evaluated the nestlings for several weeks. In the end, they discovered that baby birds that shared a room with a blind snake grew quicker and had a greater chance of surviving. It wasn't an accident that the snakes were delivered to the nest alive — they were serving as small, unsuspecting parental assistants!

This is an extraordinary example of symbiosis or interspecies cooperation. Some have referred to it as mutualism, which refers to a situation in which two species benefit each other mutually, but given that the snakes are still occasionally eaten by the owlets (and don't fare well once the nest is vacated), it's more likely that it's a commensal relationship, in which one species benefits from the other.

It's not every day that a would-be prey turns into a predator in an owl's house, but it does happen. However, screech owls benefit greatly from this situation!

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