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significance that had for what type of prey they took and their rate of success.
    He turned toward the other cages. “All I know about owls is that they’re nocturnal.”
    “They’re mostly active at night,” Kaye said. “Or when theyperceive it’s night, and that’s when they usually hunt. But one or two species do hunt during the day if they need to, and they all do if the situation presents itself.”
    By the door to the next room hung a calendar with handwritten notes in red, blue, green, and black. The assistant professor leaned close to inspect it. “The owls have been outside today, but not fed their evening meal yet,” Kaye said, “so I can show you that.”
    “Do you need me to do anything?” he said.
    “Just watch. Think of it as introducing yourself, your voice and motions.”
    “Can they tell the difference between us?”
    “Of course,” Kaye said. “They are able to hear a mouse running through the underbrush in complete darkness with such accuracy that all they need to do is fly over and scoop it up with their talons.”
    “Soundlessly?” he said.
    “Completely silent to us because of how their wings and tail are constructed,” Kaye said. “They have to, since their prey is not only running, but also listening for its life.”
    “Amazing,” he said.
    “Isn’t it?” Kaye said and gave him a broad smile.
    The assistant professor returned to the room they just left. There he pulled out two laboratory gloves from a box and put them on. Then he took one of the mouse cages down from the rack and placed it on the counter. Inside the plastic several lumps of brown fur were visible in the wood wool.
    Can’t just feed one of the owls,” Kaye said, “or the rest of them won’t calm down for hours.”
    “Do they become envious of each other?” he asked.
    “Who knows,” Kaye said. “At least they can tell when someone else is getting something they don’t and they dislike it. Andwhy shouldn’t they be capable of feeling envy, even if they are birds? They’re intelligent enough to thaw food that’s frozen over with the heat from their own bodies. Many animals seem to experience the same emotions as we do, joy, fear, anger, desire, and so on. Some even mourn their dead when they encounter a corpse of their own species.”
    “Really? I had no idea.”
    The assistant professor searched his face for a moment. “Sorry, I’m lecturing,” Kaye said. “It’s a bad habit, but almost unavoidable in academia.”
    “No, please go on.”
    “It seems that most, if not all, of our emotional responses are older than humanity,” Kaye continued, a look of child-like eagerness on his face. “Much of what we think makes us human actually pre-dates us, our tools, and our civilization. We inherited love and altruism from our evolutionary forebears, those traits did not originate in human beings.
    “Humanity is eradicating the habitats of millions of species, with several hundred going extinct each day. We’ve set off a new mass extinction, on a scale that’s only happened five times before on the planet. Our hunger for non-renewable energy, cheap consumer goods, and endless economic growth is making the same impact on the environment as an asteroid would. Even worse, the large earth systems may be so destabilized that several aspects of climate change are now irreversible. It’s impossible to say which wild animals or plants will survive under these conditions.”
    He looked at the assistant professor, not certain how to respond.
    “Well, that concludes tonight’s class,” Kaye smiled. “Shall we get to work?”

    Kaye carried the box of mice into the owl room and continued to the uppermost cage in the corner furthest from the door. The mottled gray bird that sat inside turned its head toward them and blinked, but did not otherwise move or make a sound. The assistant professor pushed one hand beneath the plastic lid of the mouse box and picked up one of the round forms that was sleeping