LUOMUS

Finnish Museum of Natural History

Participate in research on tawny owl colour morphs!

THE RESEARCH IS FINISHED!

Thank you for participating the study! The study got over 5400 participants and provided us with a lot of valuable research material. Preliminary results support our assumption of tawny owls’ camouflage: brown owl in a snowy landscape is the easiest to detect, grey owl in a snowy landscape is the most difficult to detect.

More detailed results and biological meanings will be discussed in my doctoral thesis.

We have run a lottery among participants and have informed the winner about a free guided tour at the Finnish Museum of Natural History.

Best regards,

Katja Koskenpato

Instructions

  • Do the study alone
  • Use a computer screen (not phone)
  • You will be shown pictures of mounted brown or grey tawny owls in nature. Try to find the owl as quickly as possible and then click the owl with the mouse
  • There are eight pictures altogether. You don't need to define the colour morphs of the owls
  • If you don’t find the owl in the picture within a minute, the programme shows where the owl is and you can continue to the next picture
  • You can participate in the study only once

By giving your email address (compulsory) you can receive feedback once the study is completed and participate in a lottery for a free guided tour at the Finnish Museum of Natural History (travel cost will not be covered).

You can now start searching for the owls! Log into the study site via this link.

Example of a study picture.

Person in charge of the page: 
Katja Koskenpato
18.2.2019