Endless Thread - Owl pursuits

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

Last fall, freshmen at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill got a new neighbor: an owl. What wasn't clear was whether the owl was trying to befriend them, or catch them. Endless Thread host Ben Brock Johnson and producer Grace Tatter talk about how the owl gained online campus fame, and get a surprise update from the person who knows the owl best.

WBUR Podcasts, Boston. Grace Tatter. Yes, that's me, Ben Brock Johnson. That's you. Who are you again? I'm a producer for Endless Thread. And this is a two-for-week. It was a Grace Week last week, and it's a Grace Week this week.

I love it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so hopefully people aren't getting tired of my Jolset Tones. How could they ever? One thing I know about you is you're the person who introduced the HBO show The Staircase to me. Now, well, why are you marketing to? My wife, she had an accident.

What kind of accident? She fell down the stairs. No, she's not amazing. Really? Is that true? And one of our highlights and listens? Yeah. It wasn't anyone else of the millions of people on Twitter talking about it? No, no.

It was you. It was you who, uh, endless thread folks listening out there, Endless Thread and our podcast department gets together once a week. And we tell each other what our high was for the week and our low and also our listen. And Grace hit us with the listen. This was months and maybe years ago now. Months ago. Months ago with the HBO show, The Staircase, which involves some owl action.

Yes, at least an owl theory. Now I can't remember if the owl theory ended up in the HBO version, but definitely in the real life case, the real life murder case that the HBO show was based on. There's plenty owl content in the HBO. But you come to us today with more owl content. Yes, from that same part of the country, from the triangle of North Carolina. For people who don't know the staircase, the theory, it appears that this woman, Kathleen Peterson, was murdered by her husband. But some people think that she was actually killed by an owl.

And that always seemed pretty far out there to me because I've lived in the Piedmont of North Carolina for most of my life. and really hadn't encountered that many owls at all, much less any killer owls. Owls be out there, though. Yeah, they do. And I was talking to a friend recently, and she was telling me that in Chapel Hill, where I went to school,

there was a lot of chatter about a pretty, I think violent would be the word, violent owl. I'll send you, actually, some of the Instagram videos that were going around. Okay, all right. Slack them to you. Oh, God.

Oh my god Whoa this owl is like cruising very close to the ground in a parking lot I don't I don't blame him for It's very funny whoever this person is I don't blame them for going home after this Because they seem to be dive bombed by an owl Except it's not really dive bombing because the owl is like flying so close to the ground in this parking lot,

like maybe a foot off the ground, and then just like careening into the person shooting the video, the caption says, this hojo owl got me fucked up. Back to North Campus I go. Yeah, so some context, because that probably doesn't make any sense to you, right?

This is very, I feel like this is very Chapel Hill, like, you know, people who know the campus, this makes sense to them. Exactly, yeah. So Hinton James is a dorm, I think a thousand freshmen live in Hinton James. It's one of the biggest dorms definitely on campus. And it's also kind of the shittiest dorm, like when you get your housing assignment, going into your freshman year if you get Hinton James, you're bummed out because it's the farthest away from the rest of campus.

Somehow it's uphill both ways a mile. I don't know how that works. But it's definitely true. I did live there. And for nickname, we call it Hojo. The North Campus, what you? he's referring to are where like there's these beautiful historic buildings with like the dorms have like pianos in the lobby that is not at all the case with Hinton James. It's rough.

Hinton James got owls in the parking lot. North campus has pianos in the lobby. Exactly. It's always been character building to live in Hinton James. But when I lived there, we did we did not have any dive-bonged owls. I'm going to send you one more video of the owl. This video is hilarious. So yeah, this one is a girl. It's just how to tell them about this. It's like, this should not be funny, but it's very funny.

It's very funny. It's like, I don't know, really know how to describe it because it's such a chaotically shot video, but it's like, you see like an owl again, like flying around sort of like close to the, ground and like all over the place in this video but then you see this woman kind of like nope out

like she just like turns and runs and screaming and the owl and the owl gives pursuit right behind her and it's like very funny although I imagine in the moment it would be absolutely terrifying but like when I watch the video I'm like this is hilarious she's just getting owl chased. It's really good. As if it's not hard enough to be a college student. Poor girl. I know. I know. But I actually, so I have more context about her specifically. So I heard about this owl living outside of my old dorm and I did a Google to see what else was about it. And I found this column in the Daily Tar Heel, which is the student newspaper at Chapel Hill from a first year who was writing in defense of this owl. He says, yeah, that it's collectively her.

harassing all the freshmen and that it's kind of scary. Is it freshman only? Yeah, because it's only, it lives outside this dorm that's only freshman. It's like hazing, ma'am. There's something truly delicious about that to me. I'm not sure why, but okay, sorry, go ahead. So yeah, so this guy, Alan Chen, who's also first year, he lives in the dorm that's slightly up the hill, so it's also crappy, but it's a little less crappy because it's a little

bit closer to everything. But he writes this column saying that he thinks this owl is a good thing, that it's character building, that it's bringing people together. So I was intrigued by that. So I called him up and I asked him how he originally became introduced to the owl if it was like through these Instagram videos that were all being posted on this account UNC Chicks, which is like a meme account that's affiliated with Chicks, which is something. bar stool related. And his first encounter with Yowl was actually courtesy of that girl who we just saw. Do we have a name for that girl?

Oh, we do. And sorry, that girl. Kaylee. I don't want you to start referring to her as like a UNC chick. That's true. Yeah, because it turns out even though the meme account is named UNC chicks, it's usually bird content is an outlier. Kaylee.

Okay. Yeah. So Allen was introduced when Kaylee came running into a suite because he lives with her boyfriend. She just sort of came running in frantically one day. She was like, Alan, the weirdest thing just happened. I was chased by an owl for 30 minutes. And I was like, what?

An owl? And she was like, yeah, an owl. So naturally, I was like, I want to go see this owl, which is when I went out and, you know, tried to talk to the owl. And I sort of implanted myself in the mythos of the owl from that day on. I sort of became really fascinated by it. And I was reaching out to people who had owl encounters on Instagram and whatnot. Yeah, so Alan then went to talk to lots of the people who have submitted some of these videos. Oh, I didn't even show you the video.

Like, there's a video of someone giving the owl a cigarette. What? Yeah, I'll show it to you. giving the owl the cigarette? Yeah. Oh my God. Don't give the owl the cigarette.

No. Come on. It's also like such a It's a... It looks so sweet there, right? I know. Owls are so... God, what are amazing creatures there.

Yeah, so this owl did become, it became kind of online famous because people were submitting videos to this meme account. And yeah, and lots of people are talking about it in real life too. So because of all of its online fame,

it became something that people were excited to have their own spotting. This person's shooting it. Like, it's like, it's in a tennis court. Now it's in a tennis court. Now it's like lit up, lit up at night by the headlights of a car. Like it's in some kind of crime movie.

Oh, man. I'm sorry. It's just, it's truly, this owl is clearly, like it's a mascot. It's becoming a mascot on Instagram. And like people clearly love this. Yeah, exactly. And Alan told me that like people would just gather and go watch owl watching or like, you know, like call people over who entire floors of this huge dorm would like come out and all like watch the owl together. People would bring snacks. And it gave them something to talk about. It was like a bonding experience for people. Sure. Yeah. Which like when you go to a huge school, Like, I feel like it could be really helpful. Like, I remember what it was like to be, like, one of a thousand kids in a huge dorm.

It's, like, nice to have something to talk about before basketball season. Common experience. Yeah, common experience where, like, everybody can kind of be, like, on the same side. You know? Everybody's like, oh, check out the owl. You know, like, it's not like a – this is not, like, an othering experience except maybe for the owl. Exactly, exactly. So here's another thing that's coming up for me that I haven't really said yet.

Which is like, knowing nothing about this owl, this is a piece of wildlife that's living outside in an environment that has been completely taken over by a massive university. And so, like, I guess I would keep my distance, but out of respect for the animal. Like, I might sort of get closer to an animal so I can get, like, a thrilling view of it. Like, I do that, you know, like, when I say, you know, like, when I say, you. see, I get bobcats where I live. And if I see a bobcat, I'm definitely trying to like get a better vantage of the bobcat, but I ran into a bear the other day. Oh my gosh. And it had its babies with it. And I was like, I noped out of there real fast. So I think like I would keep my distance out of respect for the animal and out of like wanting it to have its own space in

the environment that we share. I admire your respect for wildlife. I think I would probably have steered clear of it just because I would be scared. But anyway, it turns out that Reddit loves an owl attack story. So this has been mostly confined to the UNC community, but around the same time that this was happening, there was a post on the subreddit R slash, well, this sucks, from a woman who got attacked by an owl in her neighborhood twice. And this actually got picked up by NPR because this Reddit post had so much attention. So you can see. see some pictures there of what owls can indeed do if they get you. And we already talked about when I was in college. The podcast Criminal did an article about Owls in Chapel Hill because of the

owl theory about the staircase, which was in Durham, which is like eight miles away. So they like started that episode with stories about owls swooping down. So I'm running and I actually lowered the brim of my hat, and about 20 seconds later, I felt a scratch on my head, and then my hat disappeared. So there is precedent for this happening, especially in the fall, apparently barred owls feeling territorial. For a lot of the reasons you just said, I mean, this part of North Carolina has just developed an insane amount in the past couple of decades. So there are a lot of houses being built, which means a lot of trees are being cut down, all sorts of critters are running out of the woods.

And you can't blame them because wild animals are going to be wild animals to your point earlier. Except for this owl actually might not be totally wild. Grace, you do have, as I understand it, a kind of conclusion to this story about this mysterious owl. But folks will have to wait for another minute while we take a break. We'll be right back. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science. Neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories.

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What's next? So I'm going to send you one last Instagram post. So this is from an account called UNC Quirk. So people submit pictures of quirky things around UNC. Right. And, yeah, a student saw this woman feeding this owl, a dead mouse. And the woman said that she'd raised the owl from an egg. So it turns out this owl was perhaps not a wild owl, but a pet owl.

What? Which is somehow makes the story all the moment is on. Yeah. And then after this encounter, after this freshman named Izzy, saw this encounter, the student stopped seeing the owl, at least for a while. So wait, does that mean that she, like, took the owl back home? Unclear. Like if she just like rescued it. Oh my God. Yeah. If you like go to the next one, you can see her like kind of kissing the owl.

Yeah. Well, they're kissing each other. Yeah. They clearly love each other. So like unclear, did she take it back home or did she just like rehabilitate it? I saw one comment on TikTok saying that the woman was the commenter's mom. So I did reach out to that person on TikTok to be like, is this really your mom? But she did not get back to me. She didn't get back to me. Yeah, so the identity of the little owl owner is a mystery. What an interesting and strange tale of this mysterious owl and its mysterious owner and its mysterious behavior. Thank you, Grace, for bringing this story.

Thanks for listening. And that is where our short episode would have ended, except that woman Grace reached out to on TikTok, hoping to talk to her mom, Yep. On Monday morning, I received a text from the woman who helped raise the Hojo Owl. Hojo Mom. And she was a hoot. She sure was. Oh, come on, Grace. Give me one chuckle. Geez, God. All right, Grace, what did she have to say? Well, she started out with the important stuff. You know, I'm not a crazy person. Barb told me that she's been rehabbing wildlife in the Chapel Hill.

area for decades. She asked us not to use her last name because in North Carolina, you actually need a special license to rehab Raptors. Last March, a friend from Durham, which again, basically the town over from Chapel Hill, called Barb about a baby owl that had fallen out of its nest. You know, you could fit her in the palm of your hand. You know, she was just a tiny little thing. Barb took the baby owl home, and her son-in-law bestowed it with the name Owlisten. like Allison, but you know, with an owl. And over the next few months, Barb fed Allison a steady diet of frozen mice. Her family got used to having Allison around, and Allison got used to them.

We would have a bonfire in the backyard at night, and she would fly, and she would be on the back of my chair, and she just sit there and piddle with my hair, believe it or not. And so she just didn't have that fear, I guess, that she would be on the back of my chair, and she just sit there. she needed to have. So that's the one thing I did wrong. I imprinted too much, as they say. In the fall, Barb said they started seeing Allison less and less until finally she'd been gone for three or four days. I said, well, maybe this is the time.

You know, maybe she's found other owls. You don't know. It's a wild animal. And then she would come home. You know, so we never went very long. without seeing her. And the last time she flew off, and I hadn't seen her the whole week.

And then I got a call. The call came from someone who lives or works in a student apartment complex on South campus and who knew about Barb's passion for wildlife. Barb realized that the owl he was calling about was probably Allison. I guess she just liked the people. He said she would sit on the windowsill and look in at the students, you know, when they were in their rooms, and that's when I knew. Uh-oh.

Even though Barb had heard that the students really liked Owlson, she was worried that the owl might accidentally hurt someone. So she took Allison home for the night and then to a wildlife rescue near Pittsburgh, North Carolina. She told me that she always planned to release Allison into the wild eventually. Barb is still able to keep tabs on her owl friend. The folks who work at the rescue will send Barb pictures of Owlson from time to time. She has hundreds of acres to fly around in.

So she's doing what ever owls do. Indeed, whatever owls do, which is maybe dreaming about her checkered past of terrorizing freshmen. Maybe, although I have to admit, Ben, after talking to Barb, I felt a little bit guilty about calling Allison possibly violent. I think she was just friendly. She was just trying to play with some people's hair. Exactly. She was trying to like come over and hang out. Exactly.

I think she was misunderstood. So misunderstood. I was like trying to figure out how to make a joke about like, you know how owls don't poop? I did not know that. You didn't know that? No, wait. No, they do. Oh my God, Ben.

I almost put a cut in about this owl wearing a diaper. They do poop. And I have a cut to prove it. They do. They don't poop, Grace. I'm going to believe the sound. Grace, I hate to tell you. I have.

Owls don't poop. How much would you like to bet, Grace? How much would you like to bet? I literally have tape about an owl wearing a diaper to play for you. Hey, you don't, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean the owl's poop and if the owl's wearing a diaper. No, I think she talked about poop. What should we bet?

Oh, this is tough. This is tough, dude. What would you like to bet? I don't know. Ice cream, ice cream sandwich and a drink. Ice cream cone. All three.

All right. You're on. Okay. Well, how are we going to prove it, though? Because Barb, who seems like an owl expert to me, told me that this owl was pooping on her awning. Are you Googling? Okay, here's, this is tough.

This is tough. Oh, they, pallets. Pellets. I knew that because we've all dissected. Did you dissect an owl pellet in school? Yes, I did. I think that counts as poop. No, it doesn't because they regurgitate them.

That's not poop. Okay, but also why does this? If it comes out of your mouth, I'm pretty sure it's not poop. We don't describe it as poop. I'll go into the next most relevant popular Google search, which is do owls have buttholes? In spite of common miscarriage. misconceptions. Yes, owls do have butts. Well, obviously. According to Alexa answers,

owl pellets are coughed up from the mouth because they eat food whole, so they have to emit the bones and fur. They still pee. They still pee and poo. Yes, thank you. Okay, you owe me. Because bird poop, think about bird poop. It's just like the white, like it's like liquidy stuff. It's a kind of ice cream like when you think of ice. Anyway, I think that... I guess I lose. I guess I lose.

But I'm just going to say, I hope an owl never poops on either of us. I hope that too. Or pellets on either of us, because that shit's gross too. That's all so gross. Grace, thank you for never giving up on solving owl mysteries. Oh my gosh, you're welcome. Got to keep it real for my alma mater and for endless thread.

See you next week, owl fans. Bye. Endless Thread is a production of WBUR in Boston. This episode was produced by me, Grace Tatter, and co-hosted by... Me, Ben Brock Johnson, who just lost a bet about whether owls poop or not. Mix-in sound design by Emily Jankowski. The rest of our team is Amory Severson, Quincy Walters, Dean Russell, Norris Sachs, Amy Gorell, Matt Reed, and Paul Vytkus, and yes, owls do poop. And vomit, apparently.

So we leave you with that, folks.