Photo source: Julian Robinson
While most owls limit themselves to prey up to 20% of their body weight, Powerful Owls go after many arboreal mammals such as possums, gliders, and juvenile koalas, which can be 50 to 100% of their body weight. That is about 10x the body weight to prey ratio of other owls.
20 x 10 = 50 to 100
If we look at it as a ratio as stated, it seems to work out.
Powerful Owls are about 3 pounds. If they can take down body weight prey, that’s 3 pounds.
A big barn owl, a common owl in most parts of the world, would be 1.4 pounds. Going by the average prey weight of 20% body weight, that’s 0.28 pounds.
3 / 0.28 = 10.7
I’m still confused by ‘X times as many’ and ‘Y% more’ not seeming to add up too. Don’t worry, some day maybe we will learn.
It’s all good. Math isnt a requirement to enjoy looking at the wildlife. It’s also ok to question things, especially if they don’t make sense.