10 Futurama Secrets You Never Knew
7. The Reason For New New York's Owl Infestation
In case you hadn't noticed, owls are kind of big in the future. Not in an early 2010s "omg owls r soooo cute" way; more of a "oh my god the owls are taking over and they can't be stopped", type thing.
Owls are the pests of tomorrow in the world of Futurama, but they're more than just a stand-in for city pigeons or rats - there's an actual in-world reason behind their newfound pest status.
Anyone who's stayed in a city will know that rats and pigeons can sometimes be a problem, and New York is no exception. In the world of Futurama though, it's revealed that NYC took to introducing wild owls into the eco-system to deal with their pests.
The program went horribly awry however, as the owls proceeded to settle into the Big Apple and breed at an unprecedented scale, eventually changing their behaviour from nocturnal predators to daytime scavengers.