size of hares (albeit usually young ones), may too be fairly often taken, as well as variable numbers of birds, amphibians and invertebrates, with reptiles and perhaps fish being very rare prey. Across the wide distribution, the Ural owl is known to take more than 200 prey species, of which more than 80 are mammals.Vrezec, A., Saurola, P., Avotins, A., Kocijančič, S., & Sulkava, S. (2018). A comparative study of Ural Owl Strix uralensis breeding season diet within its European breeding range, derived from nest box monitoring schemes. Bird Study, 65(sup1), S85-S95. In a compilation study of the diet in three European study areas and four different years found that the mean prey body mass taken per nest was estimated to vary from with an average estimated at . Most hunting efforts are undertaken from a perch. They usually prefer prey that comes into open spots of the forest rather than those that frequent the forest floor.Eskelinen, O., Sulkava, P., & Sulkava, R. (2004). Population fluctuations of the wood lemming Myopus schisticolor in eastern and western Finland. Acta theriologica, 49(2), 191-202. In Slovakia, in addition to glades and meadows near tall forests, Ural owls have been somewhat acclimated to hunting in open areas that are human sourced, including areas of forest fragmentation and even agricultural areas and small towns and villages if they are adjacent to mature forest patches. Little direct study has gone into the hunting methods of this predator. It is quite possible that is to some extent a still-hunter, perching for some time on a prominent tree until prey becomes apparent into the vicinity. However, in Scandinavia, Ural owls were reported to hunt more like goshawks rather than the more still-hunting tawny owls, with a perch-hunting method wherein they fly in brief spurts from perch to perch, with the flights meant to be inconspicuous until prey is detected. Ural owls are not known to attack prey from active flight, instead nearly always dropping down on it directly from its perch.Lundberg, A. (1980). Why are the Ural Owl Strix uralensis and the Tawny Owl S. aluco parapatric in Scandinavia? Ornis Scandinavica, 116-120. In Japan, experimental studies of semi-captive Ural owls were undertaken to observe how the owls select which areas to hunt in and which prey to select. When experimentally exposed to patches where prey was present and patches where prey was not present, Ural owls would forage