Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures,
Speaker 1: ideas and monsters in time. The owl Bear has a
Speaker 1: long history in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, dating
Speaker 1: all the way back to the gaming table of D
Speaker 1: and D pioneer Gary Gygax, who was allegedly inspired by
Speaker 1: the design of a Japanese Kaichu toy which he used
Speaker 1: as a mini on his gaming table. You can look
Speaker 1: up images of the toy, a slightly dirty beat monster
Speaker 1: in yellow plastics, standing in the traditional stance of an
Speaker 1: old school t Rex toy. Now you'll find various choices
Speaker 1: of dedicated owl bear miniature today, as the creature has
Speaker 1: become a standard of fantasy role playing adventures. A hulking,
Speaker 1: flightless owl beast that stalks the forests, hunting anything that
Speaker 1: moves and littering its layer with their bones. It is
Speaker 1: not an evil monster, but rather a neutral denizen of
Speaker 1: the fantastic forest. The fifth edition Monster Manual tells us
Speaker 1: that while the exact origins of the owl bear are unknown.
Speaker 1: There are two prevailing theories. Either a mad wizard spliced
Speaker 1: an owl and a bear together into a single beast,
Speaker 1: or it has simply always been a part of the
Speaker 1: fay wild, which I guess is basically like saying it's
Speaker 1: a naturally occurring organism. Fair enough, in the world of
Speaker 1: dungeons and dragons, magic has an objective reality, as do
Speaker 1: just about every god and devil you could possibly imagine.
Speaker 1: But what fascinates me about the owl bear is that
Speaker 1: none of that seems quite required. It feels highly probable.
Speaker 1: It's a It's a whole different kettle of fish compared
Speaker 1: to something like a beholder or even a fire breathing dragon.
Speaker 1: It is, in essence, a large, flightless owl that has
Speaker 1: come to fill the ecological niche formally occupied by a bear.
Speaker 1: In the natural world, most bear species are omnivores, with
Speaker 1: pandas and polar bears representing the dietary extremes on either
Speaker 1: side herbivore and carnivore, respectively. It's implied that owl bears
Speaker 1: are carnivores, but I think we can easily imagine them
Speaker 1: obtaining nourishment. However, they can from freshly mald adventurers and
Speaker 1: scavenged corpses to elvin combost bins, and maybe a few
Speaker 1: fresh berries from freshly mald adventurers and scavenged corpses to
Speaker 1: elvin compost bins, and maybe a few fresh berries. You
Speaker 1: might counter that owls, on the other hand, are certainly carnivorous,
Speaker 1: but the burrowing owl, which will chase its prey across
Speaker 1: the ground, consumes fruit and seeds in addition to various
Speaker 1: invertebrates and small vertebrates. The burrowing owl is still capable
Speaker 1: of flight and will swoop down on its prey, but
Speaker 1: it's scampering tactics make it perhaps the closest thing to
Speaker 1: an actual owl bear in our world, despite its small size.
Speaker 1: A more fitting match from prehistoric times, however, can be
Speaker 1: found in the giant Cuban owl or orny megalonics, which
Speaker 1: thrived on the island of what is now Cuba during
Speaker 1: the late Pleistocene period. These owls measured three feet seven
Speaker 1: inches or one point one meters in height and were
Speaker 1: either flightless or nearly flightless. They are the largest owls
Speaker 1: known to have ever existed in the natural world. The
Speaker 1: giant Cuban owl and other large prehistoric birds, including the moa,
Speaker 1: thrived on islands and continents that land mammals hadn't reached yet.
Speaker 1: In these places, they filled niches typically filled by carnivorous
Speaker 1: mammals and megafauna. So, as far as my thinking goes,
Speaker 1: we don't need mad wizards to arrive at the owl bear.
Speaker 1: We just need an ecosystem isolated from mammals in which
Speaker 1: some manner of ground hunting owl can steadily adapt toward
Speaker 1: filling the role traditionally occupied by bears. This would also
Speaker 1: work if some previously dominant organism had been wiped out
Speaker 1: and owls were able to move into that vacant niche.
Speaker 1: But of course, in the world of dungeons and dragons,
Speaker 1: dinosaurs and dragons coexists, so it's hard to imagine there
Speaker 1: being too many opportunities for evolving organisms like this. So
Speaker 1: maybe a mad wizard is required after all. Well, my
Speaker 1: son Sebastian, who actually just gave me an owl bear
Speaker 1: mini for Father's Day, suggests that it could have been
Speaker 1: the work of druids seeking not to release a ferocious
Speaker 1: monster on the world and challenge adventures, but rather to
Speaker 1: bolster a challenged environment where perhaps Adventurers had wiped out
Speaker 1: the bears, and there was this lovely niche that needed filling. Well,
Speaker 1: why not the owl? Why not the Owl Bear? Thanks
Speaker 1: to my son Sebastian for chiming in on this one.
Speaker 1: Tune into additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.
Speaker 1: As always, You can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 1: Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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