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Meowl

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki


For the bird sometimes called the "cat owl", see Great horned owl.

Meowl is an Internet meme about an imaginary animal with the head of a cat and the body of an owl. The name is a portmanteau of meow and owl, and the creature is also called a cat owl or owl cat. Its best-known depiction is a 2013 photomontage, first posted on the Chinese platform Weibo, that puts the face of Guapi, a cat popular on Chinese social media, on the body of a barn owl.

Within a month the Weibo pictures were on English-language websites, shown next to other cat–owl composites and a still of a similar creature from the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The image came back into wide circulation on TikTok from 2024. Users animated it, often with AI editing tools, and set it to Yael Naim's song "New Soul". In 2025 people began copying its pose in videos. By the end of that year the meme had also become popular again in China.

Name

"Meowl" combines meow, the sound a cat makes, with owl.[1] The 2013 Weibo post simply called its pictures owls.[2] According to the Chinese pop-culture outlet BBJi (BB姬), the images were reposted to Reddit soon afterwards and English-speaking users later gave the creature its name.[3] BuzzFeed and DesignTAXI used "owlcat" and "catowl" in May 2013;[4][5] by early 2014 websites in English and Turkish were calling the creatures "Meowls".[6][7] BuzzFeed also pointed out that the Chinese word for owl, simplified Chinese: 猫头鹰; traditional Chinese: 貓頭鷹; pinyin: māotóuyīng, translates as "cat-headed falcon".[4]

History

Origin

A barn owl facing the camera, showing its pale heart-shaped face and white breast
A barn owl. The body in the best-known Meowl image comes from a photograph of this species.

On 28 April 2013 the Weibo user zhumaokele (Chinese: 猪猫可乐) posted a set of pictures titled "Owl collection", in which the heads of cats from several households had been edited onto the bodies of owls.[2] One of them used the face of Guapi (Chinese: 瓜皮), known in English as Melonpi, who was already a well-known Internet cat in China; her photos had been popular as profile pictures since 2011.[2][8][9] The picture that pairs her round-eyed face with the body of a barn owl outlasted the others and is the image now usually meant by "Meowl".[1]

A month after the Weibo post the photomontages were on English-language sites. A BuzzFeed gallery published on 28 May 2013 reproduced four of them, including the Guapi image (labelled "Melonpi"), next to cat–owl composites credited to DeviantArt users. It opened with a still of the cat owl, one of the hybrid animals in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and asked how the creature "would look in real life".[4][10] DesignTAXI, writing about the gallery three days later, described it as inspired by the show's "catowl" and said it could not decide whether the animals were "too cute or more than a little creepy".[5] My Modern Met wrote in 2014 that the colouring of the fur and feathers made the composites "appear surprisingly natural".[7]

Revival

Yael Naim singing into a microphone on stage
Yael Naim in 2008. Clips of the creature set to her song "New Soul" became popular on TikTok in 2025.

After lying dormant for some years, the image started to attract attention again on TikTok in 2024.[1][3] Users posted videos in which the creature had been animated, frequently with AI editing tools, and by September 2025 clips set to "New Soul" were popular. Around the same time, TikTok users began copying the pose of the image: one person tucks their knees inside their T-shirt and grips a friend's outstretched arm with both hands, so that they appear to be perched on it.[1] Another popular format, from the TikTok account meowlinfo, had the creature state a false premise in a squeaky voice and then correct the viewer with the Indonesian phrase salah besar bro ("big mistake, bro").[3]

By December 2025 the image had also become popular again in China, where a user paired it with an older reaction picture of a lion roaring at an apple; the lion-and-cat pair spread as matching profile pictures for couples. When some users suggested that the picture was AI-generated, Guapi's owner posted a clarification.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ahn Ye-eun (29 September 2025). (영상) 고양이 얼굴을 한 올빼미?…현시각 알고리즘 점령한 'Meowl' 밈 정체 [(Video) An owl with a cat's face? What is the 'Meowl' meme that has taken over the algorithm]. NOWnews (in 한국어). Seoul Shinmun. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 猪猫可乐 (28 April 2013). 【猫头鹰合集】【喵星人的空军部队———猫头鹰！】 [[Owl collection] [The cats' air force: owls!]]. Weibo (in 中文). Archived from the original on 14 February 2026. Retrieved 5 October 2026. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 小熊猫 (10 December 2025). 12年前的古早猫头鹰梗图，怎么突然在国内外都翻红了？ [How did a 12-year-old owl meme suddenly become popular again in China and abroad?]. BB姬 (in 中文). Retrieved 5 October 2026 – via Tencent News.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tang, Kevin (28 May 2013). "Owls with Cat Heads Are Totally Creepy-Cute". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2026. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Tan, Dorothy (31 May 2013). "Creepy or Cute: Owls with Cat Heads". DesignTAXI. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2026. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  6. ↑ Türkkan, Can (19 February 2014). "Kedi Kafalı Baykuşlar ile Tanışın!" [Meet the cat-headed owls!]. Onedio (in Türkçe). Retrieved 5 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Barnes, Sara (30 April 2014). "Cat and Owl Combine to Form the Adorably Bizarre "Meowl"". My Modern Met. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
  8. ↑ 贾大方 (19 October 2017). 你连表情包里猫的名字都不知道，还敢说爱猫？ [You don't even know the names of the cats in memes, and you say you love cats?]. PingWest (in 中文). Archived from the original on 17 August 2025. Retrieved 5 October 2026. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  9. ↑ 网络红猫"瓜皮"照片被商家盗用 主人怒维权 [Retailer uses photo of Internet-famous cat "Guapi" without permission; owner fights back]. Chinanews.com (in 中文). China News Service. Xinmin.cn. 23 February 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2026.
  10. ↑ Mittal, Sarika (13 December 2020). "Avatar: The Last Airbender: The 10 Most Adorable Hybrid Animals". CBR. Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 5 October 2026. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)


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