Over a decade ago, a snowy owl made its way to the island of Oahu on its own. Sadly, it had to be killed because it arrived near Honolulu’s international airport and could not captured by animal control. An autopsy revealed that this owl had expended so much energy crossing the pacific that it almost certainly would have died of exhaustion within a few hours of its arrival. But, it still made it.
Hawaii has its own species of Owl. Their ancestors must have made a similar journey and had just enough luck to survive and establish a population there.
I’m fascinated by this. How did it happen? No owls migrate to Hawaii. Did this one get lost in a storm? Was it sheer luck that this owl picked the right direction while flying over the open ocean to end up finding Oahu? Do some owls just feel an urge to pick a direction and just keep flying? Was this one owl’s magnificent flight the result of some undescribed phenomenon?
Perhaps there is some rare instinct which inspires an individual to go on a suicidal journey into the unknown. A species sacrificing an individual to make the gamble that it will end up in some far flung biome and establishing itself there.
The flip side of this story is realizing just how many more snowy owls must have ended up over the Pacific Ocean and kept flying until they unceremoniously perished amongst the waves.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2012/01/details-emerge-about-snowy...