Options for Conservation

**Please keep in mind that these options are not exclusive.**

Hunting the Barred Owl
By hunting the Barred Owl, the hope is that competition will be reduced and the Spotted Owl can recover.  There will be study implementing this method occurring over the next four years in spots in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington (Federal wildlife officials plan to send hunters to kill barred owls in Northwest 2013).

Comparison of price per raptor killed in comparable study.
Data taken from Livezey 2010.

Pros:
Removing or reducing the competing species, the Barred Owl.
Revenue from permits sold for a possible hunting species.
Correcting a problem that we caused by urbanization and development.
Cons:
Study is expensive, costing over $1 million a year (Livezey 2010).

Graph showing the comparison of Barred Owls to be killed in study (3)
versus two similar raptor studies (1,2). Graph made using data from
Livezey 2010.

The amount of birds needed to be killed is massive. It is 84 times more raptors being killed then in any other past or current study (Livezey 2010).
Generally in lethal studies regarding raptors, small numbers are killed (Livezey 2010).

Can you tell the difference?

The effect the removal of the Barred Owl will have on the ecosystem now that they have established themselves in unknown.

Save the Barred Owl

Challenging to distinguish between the two species.  Chances of accidentally killing a Spotted Owl could be high.

Captive Breeding

Breeding Centre

Breeding the Northern Spotted Owl in captivity to increase the species chance of survival.  This strategy was implemented in Canada with the Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Centre.  Built in British Columbia, it was the first natural habitat built for Spotted Owl Breeding.  It was the size of a football field and built to minimize keeper/owl interactions.  The first owls arrived in 2007, but they have had low fledgling survivorship (Captive Breeding Program for Northern Spotted Owl 2014).

Spotted Owl in captivity

Pros:

Removal of harmful conditions and interactions can prevent complete extinction.

Genetic diversity can be controlled by choosing breeding pairs.

Increase in population as negative outside factors are removed.

Cons:

May not be able to be released into the wild because of being brought up in captivity. Only captive populations may remain.

Cost to build these facilities is high and survivorship is low as seen in the Canadian study.

Interaction with humans is necessary, and this causes stress on the animals.

Relocation

Spotted and Barred Owl nesting sites taken from Hamer 2007

Placing the Spotted Owl in habitat free of Barred Owls that will still meet their habitat requirements. It has been found that Spotted Owls prefer higher elevation sights and Barred Owls prefer lower elevation sights (Hamer 2007).  This could lead to unoccupied areas that Spotted Owls could be moved to.
It has also been the trend to control competition in raptors by relocating them during the breeding season (Livezey 2010).
Pros:
You separate the species and in doing so reduce competition.
Access is given to suitable, unoccupied habitat that the Spotted Owl may have been unable to reach.
Cons:
Stress on the owls due to physically being moved.
Finding and trapping the owls as they can be difficult to locate during the day time.
Unknown effect on habitat they are moved too. Could they become an invasive there?

Doing Nothing

Spotted Owl in clear cut

We have the option to sit back and let nature takes it course, let the fittest survive.  The question is when should we, if at all, step in.
Pros:
Inexpensive and no resources wasted because we literally do nothing.
No manipulations in the ecosystem. We simply let nature take it's course.
Hybridization between Spotted and Barred Owls occur, resulting in the Sparred Owl (Kelly and Forsman 2004).  This event is rare as Barred Owls greatly out number Spotted Owls and is only going to happen less frequently as the Spotted Owl population decreases.

Sparred Owl

Out of 9000 banded Spotted Owls, 47 were found to be hybrids (Livezey 2010).
Cons:
The extinction of the Northern Spotted Owl as the Barred Owl out competes it for resources.
The message being sent to future generations.  If we create a problem that we have chance to fix, should we?  As our population continues to grow and development increases more species are likely to find themselves in the Northern Spotted Owl's shoes.  Should the standard be doing nothing?