A new post on social media shows a rare Mexican spotted owl chasing after some food.
The post from Russ McSpadden captures the owl chasing bats on the U.S. and Mexico border.
McSpadden works for the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit that protects endangered species. McSpadden says only about 1,500 Mexican spotted owls are alive today, making this a very rare sighting.
In the video, the owl hangs around a spring-fed pool in the mountains. When a bat passes, the owl repeatedly tries to grab the flying rodent out of the air. McSpadden says he captured about 300 clips of the hunt and says the bird was successful one out of every 60 tries.
According to the National Park Service, Mexican spotted owls are on the U.S.’s and Mexico’s list of threatened species. The owl is one of three spotted owl subspecies and lives isolated from the other two. In the U.S., the animal is only found in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.
