Northern Spotted Owl
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| Strix occidentalis caurina |
The Northern Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis caurina, is one of three Spotted Owl subspecies. A Western North American bird in the family Strigidae, genus Strix, it is a medium-sized dark brown owl sixteen to nineteen inches in length and one to one and one sixth pounds. Females are larger than males. The wingspan is approximately forty two inches. Northern Spotted Owls are dark brown with round or oval white spots on the head, neck, back and have a whitish underbody with brown bars along the abdomen and chest. Their flight feathers are dark brown in color and have light brown or white bars. They have dark eyes contrary to most owls which have light eyes. The facial disk has white feathers around the eyes running down each side of the beak. They can survive in the wild for ten years and up to fifteen to twenty in captivity.
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[edit] Habitat
The Northern Spotted Owl primarily inhabits old growth forests and scientists believe that they can marginally exist in younger forests. Their range is the Pacific coast from British Columbia to central California. They nest in cavities or on platforms in large trees and will use abandoned nests of other species. They mate for life and remain in the same geographical areas year after year. Their habitat is being affected by a growing population of Barred Owls in regions that Northern Spotted Owls traditionally inhabit. Their habitat is also being affected by deforestation of old forests and hybridization with Barred Owls.
[edit] Diet
The Northern spotted owl is a nocturnal hunter. It is a carnivore and its diet consists of small rodents, wood rats, flying squirrels, and they will eat reptiles, birds and insects. They can swallow their catch whole and will spit out hair and bones. Males and females both hunt except during nesting. They can grasp prey on the ground and in flight.
[edit] Reproduction
Male and females mate in February or March and the female lays two or three eggs in March or April. The eggs incubate thirty days. After hatching the young owls stay with the female eight to ten days and fledge in thirty four to thirty six days. The hunting and feeding is done by the male during this time. The young owls remain with the parents until late summer to early fall. They leave the nest and form their own winter feeding range. By spring the young owls territory will be from two to twenty four miles from the parents.
[edit] Status
There are approximately three to five thousand pairs remaining in the wild, mostly in the states of Washington, Oregon and California. The Canadian population now numbers less than 20 birds.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service reviewed the status of the Northern Spotted Owl in 1982 and 1987, finding it did not warrant listing as threatened or endangered. Reviews in 1989 and 1990 proposed listing as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act throughout its range (northern California, Oregon and Washington), citing loss of old-growth habitat as the primary threat. This was implemented on 1990-06-23.[1] Logging in national forests was stopped by court order in 1991.[2]
The logging industry estimated up to 30,000 of 168,000 jobs would be lost because of the owl's status, which agreed closely with a Forest Service estimate.[3] Harvests of timber in the Pacific Northwest were reduced by 80%, decreasing the supply of lumber and increasing prices.[2] The decline in jobs was already in progress because of dwindling old-growth forest harvests and automation of the lumber industry.[3] Subsequent research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that logging jobs had been in a long decline and that environmental protection was not a significant factor in job loss. From 1947 to 1964, the number of logging jobs declined 90%. Starting with the Wilderness Act of 1964, environmental protection saved 51,000 jobs in the Pacific Northwest.[4]
The controversy pitted individual loggers and small sawmill owners against environmentalists. Bumper stickers reading Kill a Spotted Owl—Save a Logger and I Like Spotted Owls—Fried appeared to support the loggers.[3] Plastic spotted owls were hung in effigy in Oregon sawmills.[5] The logging industry, in response to continued bad publicity, started the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.[6] The public relations campaign succeeded in making the Spotted Owl synonymous with overprotective environmental policies.
The debate has cooled somewhat over the years, with little response from environmentalists as the owl's population continues to decline.[2] In 2004 the Service reaffirmed that the owl remained threatened, but indicated that the causes of endangerment had changed, mostly as a result of invasion by Barred Owls into the range and habitat of the Spotted Owl.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Federal register 55 FR 26114-26194. Northern Spotted Owl Five-year Review at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- ^ a b c Brokaw, Jeanne. Mother Jones; Nov/Dec96, Vol. 21 Issue 6, p15, 1p, 1c.
- ^ a b c Satchell, M. U.S. News & World Report; 6/25/90, Vol. 108 Issue 25, p27, 3p, 6c.
- ^ Guglielmino, Janine. American Forests; Summer97, Vol. 103 Issue 2, p6, 2/3p, 1bw.
- ^ Adams, Larry. Wood & Wood Products; Dec99, Vol. 104 Issue 13, p62, 1p, 1c.
- ^ Sustainable Forestry Initiative. http://www.aboutsfi.org/
