Ratchet Owl - [Fearsome Critter]

Ratchet owl - [Fearsome Critter] - Latin: Bubo cephalovolutum - aka 'Corkscrew owl'

• About this critter: A screwy type of mountain owl which ranges across the USA and Canada but is perhaps especially prevalent in the Rockies. It has strong neck muscles and a 'gear' in its spine which works a bit like a ratchet allowing it to turn its head 360-degrees, but only in one direction and a certain number of times. The creature is diurnal despite having horrible eyesight during the daylight, It gets around this by turning its head away from the sun all day long, until nightfall when it has turned as far as it can go, then it releases its neck muscles resulting in a fearful "CRACK!!"

The Ratchet Owl's natural pray is a small critter known as the "run-around," a small gouger-like varmint which spends all day running in circles 'round the base of the mountain pines where the owl naturally chooses to rest. Aside from the sun, this pray is the main thing which the ratchet owl will bother to follow, so as the rodent winds around and around the tree in one direction, the owl shimmies its body in the opposite direction in an attempt to keep track of its meal. This results in the tree growing twisted (and not always in the owl catching its meal.)

• History & Early Appearances: In a nutshell, the ratchet owl is another 'bunyan bird' & 'auditory critter' seemingly once shared by guides in the Rockies, it seems to be inspired by the myth that 'Owls can turn their heads a full 360 degrees & are able to keep spinning until their head drops off.' It also seems to borrow from the fact that certain plants (such as sunflowers) turn to follow the sun all day, except that the ratchet-owl does the opposite. Guides in the Rockies would haze tender-footed tourists by explaining that the cause of odd and fearful noises such as trees grinding together in the wind where instead perhaps 'a ratchet owl letting go'. The ratchet owl seems to also be a joking explanation for the odd spiral shape of wind swept pines trees;

[an example of a wind twisted ponderosa found in the Rockies]

[above is potentially, the earliest recorded 'ratchet owl' yarn as retold by 'Ronald L Ives', found in various 1938 papers.] Ives story was later republished in the research paper: Journal of Amerian Folklore, 1941 where in the direction which the owl turns was reversed, the above says 'it follows the sun' instead of 'turning away from it' perhaps the author changed his mind between the news article & the research journal or perhaps he "misspoke" to the papers, this was in a time decades before the 'undo' button and editing mistakes would have been a costly practice.)

Yet another later version of the story is retold in the context of a 'Paul Bunyan' yarn [1967 vancouver sun.] notably, this version also adds the 'side-hill-gouger' into the mix. (Curiously, a similar story involving 'gougers and owls' also appears in 'fearsome critters' [1939] by Henry H Tyron in his bio on gouger variants, particularly the Oregon bovine variant known as the 'Yamhill-Lunkus'.)]

Later in 1979, Walker D Wyman retold Ives second version of the yarn in his 'Mythical Creatures of North America' [1979] - Wyman's book gave the critter the latin name "Bubo cephalovolutum." – His wife Margret contributed perhaps the earliest illustration of the critter as well:

One other variant to the Ratchet owl story is found in "Tall Tales of British Columbia" collected by Michael Taft in 1983, but instead the creature is referred to as the 'Corkscrew Owl.' the yarn goes as follows:

68. The Corkscrew Owl and the Run-Around: 

"The reason why the tops of ponderosa pine trees are twisted is that they are the natural perch of the corkscrew owl. This bird sits on top of these trees on the lookout for prey. The peculiarity of these owls is that they can turn their heads completely around. Often at the base of these trees is a small creature called a runaround which spends its time running around the tree. The corkscrew owl twists its head around and around in order to keep track of the runaround , until it has screwed itself up so tight that the tree itself begins to twist."

• Similar Critters: The 'Treesqueak' is also sometimes illustrated as a bird and in that sense these two are perhaps, folkloric kin. Though the treesqueak does predate the ratchet owl by a few years [earliest mention was 1890 dialect notes, along with a few others.] Yet another parallel is that the 'Ratchet owl' is yet another creature which has an 'man made object' uncomfortably embedded into its anatomy, similar to the telescoping 'tripodero' & a 'few others' Fortunately, man-made inventions such as Gears, Augers, Corkscrews, Swivels, Wheels, Teapots and Telescopes (Not to mention axes & trumpets) are unlikely additions to natural animal anatomy. Still very funny to imagine, entertainment was the point to such tall-tales in the first place! (not much else to do back then!) The prank-origins of this critter also brings the australian drop bear and others like it to mind. 

[Art sticker by @samkalensky (yo, thats me!) part of my fearsome critters & cryptids collection of stickers. Support & follow for many more! ]