Owls are fascinating creatures. Not only are they fearless hunters, but they can also do that slightly cool, slightly weird thing where they swivel their heads round to up to 270 degrees.
Although the phrase ‘wise as an owl’ is commonly used, it turns out that owls aren’t actually the wisest bird. In fact, their intelligence levels lie somewhere around the middle when compared with other birds.
But, cool facts aside — did you know that, like humans, owls can sneeze?
In a video uploaded onto YouTube by Gen3 Owl Channel, we can witness an owl sneezing for ourselves, and the video is beyond adorable.
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Meet Garu, a three-year-old rock-eagle owl who lives with his owner, Gen San, in Japan.
The little guy is somewhat of an online celebrity, with 33,500 followers on Instagram and 281,000 subscribers on YouTube, where his owner shares adorable videos of him playing with stuffed toys, hanging out with other animals and generally just being really cute.
In a video that has now racked up over 12 million views, Gen San films Garu sneezing not once but twice, and it’s absolutely adorable.
At the beginning of the video, Garu squints his eyes and swallows, as if trying to stop his sneeze from coming on. We all know that annoying feeling of when you’re about to sneeze and your nose feels all funny!
His eyes have that ‘I’m about to sneeze, concentrate… it’s almost here!’ expression.
After a few seconds, the sneeze finally happens, and the sweetest little noise comes from Garu’s beak.
But the cuteness doesn’t end there. It seems we’re in for a treat, as Garu then does another sneeze, which is just as adorable as the first.
His facial expressions are just adorable. He screws up his little face as if to say, “no more sneezes, please!” And luckily for Garu, that seems to be the last one.
So why do owls sneeze? Is it for the same reason as humans?
In Garu’s video, his owner explains in the caption that, ‘The owl will sneeze on cold days.’
So there we have it.
It turns out that owls aren’t the only mammals that sneeze. Apparently elephants, along with other mammals, can also feel that tingly-nose sensation that leads to a sneeze. Just imagine the noise when it’s coming out of a trunk, instead of a nose!
Whales can sneeze from their blowholes, whilst even fish can cough or sneeze to clear particulate matter in the water that ‘clogs’ their gills.
Fascinating stuff.
Whatever the reason, we can’t deny that we love a good video of an animal sneezing.
Check out Garu’s below!
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