Visiting an Owl cafe in Nara, Japan! (Original Content)

On the way back from the Deer Park in Nara we stopped by an Owl Cafe. Japan has all sorts of animal cafe's, such as Owl's, Hedgehogs, Cats and more. The price was a bit steep ($1000 pp with a coffee) but when we come across something that is "only in Japan" we just have to do it.

Note that there are many rules in an Owl cafe. The owls can become stressed or moody and Owls such as the snowy owl can become very uncomfortable when there are too many people as they are accustomed to low temperatures.

I have to apologise in advance as I have minimal knowledge of owls and I'm only able to identify the snowy owl breed.

This is the snow owl here. He has his own spot away from the other owls and seems quite content with the head massage I give him. I was expecting him to to say O'Rly? at some point but it never happened :(

This was my favourite owl, had big bold eyes but was also very friendly.

This guy had an attitude and we weren't allowed to pat, just feed a meat/fish mix. He bites pretty hard apparently.

Then we have these two, it took me a while to realise that they were real owls, there are fake owls around the cafe and it can be very difficult to tell the difference.

Finally I have heard people express their concerns that the treatment of the owls is inhumane. While this is possibly the case, I have no idea what the owls are thinking. They seemed quite happy being pampered with food and pats, with the exception of one at the end of this video, he liked to run about but was unable to.

In all I learned a lot about Owl behaviour. They probably do belong in the wild but they are also well treated at the Owl cafe's. If you have any thoughts on this please comment!