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

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