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Southern Boobook - Aboriginal informationAlternative names: "Boobook Owl", "Cuckoo Owl", "Spotted Owl" "Mopoke*" Aboriginal name: Race "lurida": "guhnggur", "gumgan"/"gumgum" [bundjalung]; "gugu" [ngadjon]; Race "ocellata": "koorkoda", "kookobort", "kookomit", "yartj" (WA) "boobook", "mulara" Size: 25-35 cm Weight: 170-360 g |
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Boobook main page .
Spiritual significance
The Southern Boobook, under the name of "Mopoke Owl", features in Aboriginal creation stories. A few examples are reproduced or listed here.
R. A. Roberts and C. P. Mountford tell the story of "The Native Cat, the Owl and the Eagle" (1968 ed.), p. 76. This story tells how the Wedge-tailed Eagle and the (Southern Boobook) Owl killed the Native-cat man, in whose place the star Betelgeuze, which is the spirit of the Cat-man, rose in the sky.
Disclaimer: Not being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, we make no claim of intellectual ownership of any of the information presented here. We merely collect facts and stories documented by others. Credits/references are listed HERE.