LIHU‘E — In early 1959, Alan Thistle of Honolulu (and formerly Kekaha) flew from Seattle to Honolulu with a cardboard box between his legs. Seated next to him was a female tourist from Seattle. Well into the pleasant flight a
LIHU‘E — In early 1959, Alan Thistle of Honolulu (and formerly
Kekaha) flew from Seattle to Honolulu with a cardboard box between
his legs. Seated next to him was a female tourist from Seattle.
Well into the pleasant flight a blood curdling scream came from the
box. Wide eyed the woman asked Thistle, “What is that ?!!” He
causally said, “ Oh, it’s one of my owls.”
Editor’s note: On Dec. 3, the Kaua‘i Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. Museum leaders have chosen 50 stories from exhibits, collections and the archives of the museum to share with the public. One story will run daily through Dec. 3.
LIHU‘E — In early 1959, Alan Thistle of Honolulu (and formerly Kekaha) flew from Seattle to Honolulu with a cardboard box between his legs. Seated next to him was a female tourist from Seattle. Well into the pleasant flight a blood curdling scream came from the box. Wide eyed the woman asked Thistle, “What is that ?!!” He causally said, “ Oh, it’s one of my owls.”
As director of the division of Territorial Agriculture, he was bringing in an important guest, a barn owl. At the time he estimated that there were more rats than people in Hawai‘i. In 1956 alone, rats did an estimated $1 million in damage. Not only do they ruin cane but can carry diseases potentially deadly to people including bubonic plague, which has occurred in Hawai‘i as late the 1950’s.
Intrepid reporter Bob Krauss found Thistle and his odd assortment of creatures introduced to combat Hawaii’s pest a great story. He joined Thistle on a flight to release owls on the Big Island. The whole flight consisted of hissing from the wire cage containing the owls. “A barn owl screams, hisses, gurgles, rattles and groans but, it doesn’t hoot” commented Thistle. “Barn owls eat their weight in rats every 12 hours. In one year an owl can eat 180 to 200 pounds of rats. Barn owls are much better ratters than mongoose because they hunt at night when the rats are out. A mongoose sleeps at night and hunts in the day.”
Since full grown owl can take out chunks of an arm, they suited up with hard hats and carefully opened the cage door. The owls by then seemed “all hissed out” and blinked at the humans and then stepped out and spread their wings to lift off into their new home.
The owl was one of a long line of invited immigrants to Hawai‘i that included the mynah brought in to eat insects, the bufo to eat centipedes, and the cannibal snail to eat the giant African snails.
