In IC Broadcasting’s Island Symbiosis – Listening to Taiwan, we talk about how the grass owls raise their young. Watch the documentary, Night Hunters: Taiwan Grass Owls, to find out.

Do you know about the mating rituals of grass owls?
Did you know that a male grass owls has to hunt for mice at night to feed the female grass owl and the baby grass owls?
Are the grass owl mothers able to defend against snakes, their most fearsome predator?

The answers to these questions can be found in the documentary, Night Hunters: Taiwan Grass Owls!

Taiwan grass owls are found in the grass fields of southwest Taiwan. It is an endangered species and the only owls to make nests in bushes in Taiwan. Currently, there are less than 500 grass owls in the wild. Because grass owls are nocturnal animals, most countries have a very vague understanding of the behavior of grass owls in the wild. Grass owls are a mysterious and difficult to find species. The documentary, Night Hunters: Taiwan Grass Owls, was produced by Directors Yang Shou-Yi and Wan Jun-Ming of Flowing Films to fully present the activities of Taiwan grass owls on the screen, with the help of the Forestry Bureau, Endemic Species Research Institute, and Tainan City Wildlife Conservation Association.

The documentary team spent two and a half years to plan and shoot the film. The film records grass owl nests hidden deep in the bushes and unveils their mating rituals and reproduction process. After hatching, fledglings face many dangers. To hungry predators in the grass like snakes, a young grass owl is a mouthwatering meal. Nature also creates challenges for grass owls.: In the summer, typhoons bring torrential rains to the grasslands. In the winter, fledglings who are unable to fly cannot escape the fires that plague grasslands. In addition to the bird nets set up by farmers and airports, there is another deadly danger for grass owls, which is they may eat rats poisoned by rat poison. This causes food poisoning for the grass owl and potentially endangers their lives.

In terms of the shooting of a documentary, completing the film with minimal interference to nature has always been a big challenge, especially when shooting a rare and sensitive bird like the grass owls. The ability to set up equipment without startling the grass owls and conceal and maintain the nesting area and the surrounding grass is a test for the ingenuity of the camera crew. In order to shoot under different conditions, such as at night and in poor lighting, the documentary team used a variety of filming equipment. Some of the cameras required a power supply but the problem was finding such supply in the middle of the field. Once a power supply is installed, does it solve every problem? If a sudden field fire breaks out, will the camera survive? With the multiple challenges presenting themselves during the production process, the team could only deal with each problem as they arose!

In the episode, Golden Bell Award winning director Yang Shou-Yi will show you the production and operating procedures of an ecological documentary, giving you a glimpse into the hard and endurance testing work. You will hear about the challenges, decisions, and thoughts faced by a director of ecological documentaries.