Ruru/Morepork

Our morepork/ruru is one of two surviving native owls – unfortunately the laughing owl was snuffed out nearly a hundred years ago.

The laughing owl or whekau was much
larger than our ruru  - it was over 40cms tall. It got its name because it had a weird shrieking call. Although it adapted it's diet to include kiore (polynesian rat), it suffered many casualties from ferrets and stoats. The last sighting of our laughing owl was in 1914 in Canterbury. 

It is one of the only New Zealand birds that knows its own name!

In fact, ruru and morepork are just some of the sounds that it makes when it’s trying to attract mates, or calling to others.

It also makes a ‘cree cree’ sound when it’s hunting – but most of the time it’s deadly silent.

In fact, its wings have very soft fringes so that it can silently sneak up on its prey.

Night hunters

Ruru are perfectly adapted to hunting at night.

First, their face is surrounded by a soft disc of feathers. This helps to direct any sounds to their ears, so they can hear the crack of a branch, or the whirring of insect wings.

Secondly, they can swivel their heads 270 degrees (three-quarters of the way around – you try that!) to help them zone in on prey.

A third feature is their large plate-like eyes, which allow them to take in as much light as possible. This gives them super night-vision.

Maori especially admired their giant plate-like eyes. They thought of ruru as watchful guardians. If you look closely at some of the figures carved into our marae, they have large ruru-like eyes!

Habitat and Nesting

Ruru live in forested areas and during the day they find a nice wee hole in the trunk of a tree and sleep all day.

At night, they come out and feast on midnight snacks. This generally consists of huhu beetles, moths, caterpillars, weta and spiders. They also hunt for birds, rats and mice.

Unfortunately, during nesting the female will spend most of her time in a tree trunk cavity and this makes her easy prey for any visiting stoats and possums. And her eggs and chicks can fall victim to hungry rats.

One of the major set-backs over the past century has been habitat-loss though. Logging forests has cleared away prime ruru habitat!

You can help ruru by attending some of KCC’s planting days, so they will have plenty of places to hunt and hide.

Ruru/Morepork

Our morepork/ruru is one of two surviving native owls – unfortunately the laughing owl was snuffed out nearly a hundred years ago.

It is one of the only New Zealand birds that knows its own name!

In fact, ruru and morepork are just some of the sounds that it makes when it’s trying to attract mates, or calling to others.

It also makes a ‘cree cree’ sound when it’s hunting – but most of the time it’s deadly silent.

In fact, its wings have very soft fringes so that it can silently sneak up on its prey.

Night hunters

Ruru are perfectly adapted to hunting at night.

First, their face is surrounded by a soft disc of feathers. This helps to direct any sounds to their ears, so they can hear the crack of a branch, or the whirring of insect wings.

 The ruru’s Australian cousin is called the Boobook. In 1986, there was only one female Boobook living on Norfolk Island. All of her mates had died off! Our Wildlife Service (which we know now as the Department of Conservation) sent over some male Boobook to help. Fortunately, they got very on well and had a family! Now the Boobook population is spread throughout the forests of Norfolk Island.

They can swivel their heads 270 degrees (three-quarters of the way around – you try that!) to help them zone in on prey.

A third feature is their large plate-like eyes, which allow them to take in as much light as possible. This gives them super night-vision.

Maori especially admired their giant plate-like eyes. They thought of ruru as watchful guardians. If you look closely at some of the figures carved into our marae, they have large ruru-like eyes!

Habitat and Nesting

Ruru live in forested areas and during the day they find a nice wee hole in the trunk of a tree and sleep all day.

At night, they come out and feast on midnight snacks. This generally consists of huhu beetles, moths, caterpillars, weta and spiders. They also hunt for birds, rats and mice.

Unfortunately, during nesting the female will spend most of her time in a tree trunk cavity and this makes her easy prey for any visiting stoats and possums. And her eggs and chicks can fall victim to hungry rats.

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