![]() In Primorye, where Slaght is surveying, it’s estimated that there are 200-400 birds, but they are shot by trappers, caught in hunting snares and fishing nets. Its population in this country is still only 100-150 birds, but the numbers seem to be recovering slowly. The bird’s limited range includes Japan, where it is viewed as a divine being – ‘ Kotan koru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village)’. ‘ …it seemed almost too big and too comical to be a real bird, as if someone had hastily glued fistfuls of feathers to a yearling bear, then propped the dazed beast into a tree’. He describes the bird, which stands up to 28 inches tall and has a maximum wingspan of over 6 feet, thus: ![]() His first encounter with the bird was in 2000 in Primorye, in the far north east of Russia. ![]() Slaght, spent four seasons trying to find the world’s largest owl, Blakiston’s fish owl (Bubo blakistonii), in order to work out a conservation strategy. Dear Readers, it isn’t often that I start to rave about a book before I’ve even finished it, but I am enjoying ‘Owls of the Eastern Ice’ so much that I wanted to share it with you right this minute. ![]()
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