The laughing owl was one of two species of owl native to New Zealand, but unlike the morepork, the soft 'ruru' call of which still echoes across the country's green spaces, the laughing owl, like so many other of New Zealand's birds succumbed to the introduction of alien species with the arrival of man.
Unlike Haast's Eagle these owls were not a victim of Polynesian colonisation, they perhaps even experienced a boon following the introduction of the Polynesian rat, to which they took a liking. Rather, their habit of hunting for their prey on the ground left them vulnerable to cats and stoats introduced by Europeans in the mid-1800s, which not only killed the owls but also competed for their prey.
The laughing owl was still common at the time of European colonisation of New Zealand, its cries were described variously as "A peculiar barking noise ... just like the barking of a young dog" or "A melancholy hooting note". Presumably at times their calls were also like laughter. My favourite description, clearly from someone who has spent time in a sizeable gay bar before it fills up: "Precisely the same as two men "cooeying" to each other from a distance".
