Of all the fantastical things that happen over the course of the Harry Potter series, one of the most plausible (but also one of the coolest) is Hogwarts’ owl-based mail delivery system.
It feels like an element of that universe that’s distinct from our real world, but then again, not that distinct. After all, carrier pigeons have been used in various points of history to send messages back and forth, so the mail-delivering owl is just a natural extension of that. Somebody else realized this before I did, and they went ahead and trained an actual owl to deliver mail.
A GIF of the video above blew up on Reddit earlier this week, bringing our attention to the exciting development in air mail. It turns out that the owl is named Yoll, and that he is actually quite popular on YouTube with 246,000 subscribers. In the clip, we see Yoll perched outside a closed window, letter in hand… or in beak, rather. The person opens the window, and after some resistance, Yoll lets go of the mail and completes the delivery.
It’s also worth noting that, according to the YouTube channel’s description (translated from Russian via Google), an ornithologist runs the channel, and that Yoll was bred and raised in a nursery and is unable to be out in the wild. In other words, the owl isn’t being deprived from a life of freedom, but is instead being cared for in a loving environment.
Are you tempted to train an owl of your own to bring all your bills and grocery store fliers to your front door? Which other Harry Potter oddities seem plausible enough to try in the real world? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
