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Owls are lovable cuddly creatures and wicked associates of witches and the dark: what prompted such contradictions? Brett Westwood investigates.

Owls are lovable cuddly creatures and wicked associates of witches and the dark: what prompted such contradictions? Brett Westwood investigates. With contributions from a host of hoots and the poetry of William Wordsworth and George Macbeth and Mike Toms of the British Trust for Ornithology, writers Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey, biologist and man-watcher Desmond Morris, a husband and wife team of owl keeper and collector of ceramic figurines, and the museum curator David Waterhouse. Plus a stuffed speciman of the extinct laughing owl of New Zealand. Producer: Tim Dee

28 minutes

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