Talk:Laughing owl

2012 comment on American tourists

I would like to comment on the last 2 paragraphs of this page. I was one of the two American tourists who were reported to hear the laughing owl and I was the person the author met in California years later.

I was awoken early in the morning just before first light. We were sleeping in a small tent located near a stream next to the road about a mile or so out of Cave New Zealand. My friend I were traveling on bicycle through New Zealand. We had stopped at the local pub the day before to get a beer and have some fun before finding a camping spot. Being summer it got dark late. There was a pool table and since both of us played pool we started a friendly game with some of the patrons, all locals. The loser had to buy the next round. Well, we stayed on the table for hours, winning and drinking and making friends. At the end of the evening it was getting towards dusk so we knew we needed to get going to set up camp. We asked some one where we could go to pitch a tent and a couple of them told us of an old abandoned shack near a stream just of the road north of town. They kind of said it and then laughed as if there was something they weren't telling us. We found the spot, made camp and went to bed. The sight was under a big tree next to an old shack. The grass was tall and some what moist. The first thing I remember was being woken up by the sound of what appeared to be the sound of what can best be described of as a satanically laughing man as loud as a person could possibly laugh directly above the tent. The sound was blood curdling. My friend was sleeping next me, I nudged him and as quietly as possible woke him. I whispered asking him if he heard what I just heard. Having been asleep him said no, and thought I was joking as I had done previously on the trip. I slept with a knife in my tent so I had some feeling of security. Soon after I awoke my friend there was another blood curdling laugh. The vision of an axe crashing through the tent flashed through my mind. I looked at my friends face and saw a face I had never seen, one of total terror. My reaction to his fright was to make a joke, so with the vision of a crazed murderer standing directly above the tent, axe in hand ready to strike us dead, I yelled out "The guy on the right side of the tent has all the money". We both froze and for several minutes waited for something to happen. We heard nothing. As it was now light enough to see we got out of the tent and had a look around. We saw no one and saw no foot prints around the tent other than ours leading to the bikes where we had walked the night before. I had always thought that there were 2 possibilities. One the shack was haunted and our friends knew this when they pointed us to the sight and thus there seemingly funny behavior when they directed us there. The second possibility was that it was in fact a mad man, a local from the night before who was playing a sick joke on us. It wasn't until years later, after telling this odd story at a duck club around a roaring fire that it was explained to me by a visiting hunter from New Zealand, of what I had heard. It all made sense, because as I remember the tent sight, directly above the tent was a series of branches which the owl must of perched on. I can't recall how many cries or laughs we heard two or three, but there was no mistaken it for anything else but a sadistic laughing crazed man. And then nothing but dead silence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.181.12.162 (talk • contribs)

Well a great yarn, but I've not come across any supporting evidence that this is anything more than a great story. Both the story on the article page, and this followup were contributed by people or IP addresses that have contributed nothing else. I see no news report or other references, even if it is a true story, it doesn't appear to qualify for inclusion in an encyclopedia as it is unverified un referenced material. I will now deleted it from the article page. --Tony Wills (talk) 22:27, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

I see the story reappeared again last year, with sort of half a reference, here is the text again:

There was, however, a textbook description of an encounter with the supposedly extinct laughing owl in 1985, by a group of American tourists camping out near the small village of Cave, New Zealand. The two travelers were sleeping in a forest, far from any other people. They were awoken in their tent by "the sound of a madman laughing." According to the campers, the sound terrified them, and they feared for their lives (being as they were so far away from civilization). When they checked to see who was making the noise, they reportedly didn't see anyone or hear any other sign that there was a person in their camp. The travelers hadn't even heard of the Whēkau Laughing Owl, and their story was never explained until many years later. (Williams, 2003, pg. 421)

Around the year 2000, back in the United States, an ornithologist named Edward Williams from New Zealand came as a visitor to the former tourists' duck hunting club in Suisun, near Fairfield California. The man happened to tell the story of the mysterious laughing man, during which the ornithologist grew very excited; he had given a textbook description of the Laughing Owl. This had been the first evidence in many years that the Laughing Owl might not be extinct after all. Though this story has never been verified, it still provides hope for the survival of the Whēkau Laughing Owl. (Williams 2003, pg. 423)

I love the story, but it doesn't really belong in an encyclopedia. Something along the lines of "There was an unverified sighting in 1985 by two tourists near the small village of Cave", maybe (where is "Cave" ?), but what is "Williams 2003, pg 421"? an unpublished manuscript? Presumably it is the Edward Williams mentioned (not the G R Williams referenced, who died 1973). If it is a published work, give us a title. Or send the story in a letter to notornis, or forest & bird so we can at least reference the published story. --Tony Wills (talk) 08:57, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

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Move discussion in progress

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