According to American authorities, the barred owl is too dominant in the region. — © Shutterstock
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has come up with a striking proposal to save an endangered owl species. They will kill more than 470,000 of their kind.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023 at 6:10 PM
The barred tawny owl is stirring emotions in forests on the west coast of the United States. Those owls are not a native species to the area. They were probably once brought by European settlers and then spread throughout the Pacific Northwest, the region in northwestern North America. The owls thrive particularly well there. A bit too good, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
The barred tawny owl is displacing the spotted tawny owl, a smaller cousin of the first. And if no action is taken against the barred tawny owl, the spotted tawny owl will disappear from the region within a few years and possibly become extinct, biologists say.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has therefore come up with a plan. They want to kill a total of more than 470,000 barred tawny owls over the next 30 years. “It’s not the barred owls’ fault. It’s our fault for bringing them here. It’s not the spotted owls’ fault, either,” said Robin Brown, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who is leading the barred owl strategy. “The future of the species is extinct if we don’t manage the owls. It is a sign on the wall.”
(Read more below the photo)
The spotted owl is a smaller cousin of the barred owl and is now in danger of disappearing from the region. — © Shutterstock
Spotted owl populations have declined by about 75 percent over the past two decades and continue to decline by about 5 percent annually, largely due to the barred owl, according to an environmental impact report describing the USFWS proposal. The proposal states that there are currently more than 100,000 barred owls in West Coast forests. “They come into these areas. They reach high numbers. They basically eat everything and compete with spotted owls for food,” David Wiens, a supervisory research biologist for the US Geological Survey, told NBC News.
But not everyone can be found for the project. Animal rights organizations in particular don’t like it. “We don’t think it’s ethical to hunt for barred owls and shoot them with a shotgun because they currently do better in the existing environment and outcompete other species,” said animal rights group Friends of Animals.
The USFWS plan is still a proposal for now. The public can comment on the project until January 16.