Photo of Sumio Yamamoto with the real Don, a female Blakiston’s Fish Owl that he used for research, conservation and education for 26 years.
On Karla’s trip to Japan this fall she found a realistic plush Blakiston’s Fish Owl that would be perfect to add to the Owl Center’s weighted owl display. The owl wasn’t for sale. Read the captions for each photo to see how the saga of Little Don unfolded, and why the plush owl is named “Little Don.”
Karla spotted an exceptionally accurate plush Blakiston’s Fish Owl at the National Ainu Museum in Japan. She wanted to get it (or one like it) for the weighted owl display at the International Owl Center, but found out it was a very limited-edition custom-made owl and not for sale.
Karla asked Blakiston’s Fish Owl researcher Sumio Yamamoto if he knew where we could find an accurate plush Blakiston’s Fish Owl like the one at the National Ainu Museum, and he said he had one! But his granddaughter loved playing with it when she visited. Karla scoured the internet to find a used one online, and although one was not currently available, she knew one would show up sooner or later. (Photo of Hein Bloem at Sumio’s home in Japan with his custom plush fish owl.)
After much deliberation, Sumio and his wife Akkiko decided that their special plush owl needed to move to the US to help teach American kids about Blakiston’s Fish Owls. With luggage packed full, the owl was Karla’s “personal item” on her flights back to the US. After some deliberation, the plush owl was named “Little Don” after a real, live female Blakiston’s Fish Owl that Sumio used for research, conservation and education for 26 years. (Read more about Don and her World Owl Hall of Fame Award here: https://www.festivalofowls.com/2015.
Educator Jo Severson was tasked with conducting the “surgery” necessary to modify Little Don for our weighted owl display. This involved unstuffing Little Don.
Owls have round pupils, but Little Don had pupils more like cat eyes. We couldn’t find any properly sized plush eyes with round pupils for sale, so Jo found a plush penguin at Goodwill that became an eye donor for Little Don.
Thanks to the plush penguin eyes, Little Don now has eye befitting a Blakiston’s Fish Owl!
The bags of beans that were in the previous generic owl that we used as a Blakiston’s Fish Owl were removed and used for Little Don.
Jo stuffed the bags of beans into Little Don so she would weigh about 10 pounds, which is the weight of an adult female Blakiston’s Fish Owl in winter. (That being said, according to Sumio this plush owl is only the size of a juvenile fish owl, not a full-sized adult female.
Weighing Little Don to make sure she’s around 10 pounds (the scale is showing the weight in grams.)
Now that the eyes and weight were correct, Jo sewed up Little Don.
Little Don is now part of our weighted owl display, where kids of all ages can pick up plush owls to find out how much they weigh. She has a harness to make it easier to lift her 10-pound body. Thank you to Sumio and Akkiko for letting Little Don move from Japan to the USA so we all can learn more about her species!
Yes, it’s a very large animal with very specific ecosystem requirements. It needs cold, it needs forest old enough to have trees to hold them and the young, and those trees need to be close to running water with fish in it that doesn’t freeze over.
This is an owl that has been traditionally hard to keep track of since it is very remote and located in areas that are dangerous to explore. Satellite imagery and drones have been helping scientists better find and track these amazing owls.
There is a book on them specifically that I want to get, Owls of the Eastern Ice, to see what modern methods are being developed and see if there are thoughts on how we can preserve these wonderful creatures. It would be a huge loss to not have our king of the owls.