Heh. There may even be a few other things HS biology class missed. 
1 Like
That was the ‘honors’ class, too!
3 Likes
Reticulated X Burmese pythons
Anacondas X rainbow boas
Pantherophis and Lampropeltis have been crossed and back crossed any which way you care to name in the pet trade
the occasional hybrids between cottonmouths and copperheads
the whole Ensatina group in nature
1 Like
That’s millions of years of unique adaptation to a specific habitat. If and when that habitat is lost, will adaptations to it still be evolutionarily relevant?
What I am saying is, saving the spotted owl needs to be less about barred owl removal, and more about old-growth coniferous forest preservation.
2 Likes
Agreed!
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
I saw this article in the New York Times today: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/science/california-barred-spotted-owls.html. I thought it might be appropriate to add it to this topic in case anyone wants to comment on it. I don’t have the background to comment on it other than to say that I was shocked at the numbers of Barred Owls to be killed.
2 Likes
I have real mixed feelings about this culling plan. I assume those involved have thought this through, but would this require a certain level of killing barreds in perpetuity? Total eradication is certainly not possible and there’s the potential for barred owls to keep moving into suitable habitat for spotted owls. What kind of funding would be in place to keep this going for years and likely decades? Not to mention the ethical question of killing off one native species in an area to save another.
1 Like
It will take a lot of killing over an extended period of time. Tough situation. Though the barred owls aren’t really native - recent arrivals aided by human-induced changes.
I recall there was some question about how much anthropogenic changes to habitat have helped the range expansion. But perhaps that is an argument that isn’t well-supported and human-caused changes are the primary cause.
It really is a staggering amount of killing, with no end, and it doesn’t seem they even plan to use the dead owls for anything - just leave them to rot where they lie. At least with feral cats, people skin them.
A lot of times it ends up being site specific. Private property owners aren’t compelled to allow anyone onto their property to assess, let alon hunt, barred owls or anything else. This means its more often about how public spaces are managed. Public spaces are concerned for spotted owls but also for rodent populations in areas like national parks. Having another tool in their tool-kit… ability to limit barred owl populations, might be beneficial.
Just as an example… How many seeds are dispersed by rodents in the Hoh rainforest on the Olympic peninsula?
Table 3-29 on page 106 of the draft EIS, lists the species that are potentially positively impacted by the culling…
https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Final%20draft%20Barred%20Owl%20EIS.pdf
Either way it’s a staggering amount of killing. Whether by owls or those culling owls. You are right tho… if too many owls are culled, nearby property owners will probably deploy more outdoor cats to control rodents. It’s similar to pythons in that way… whatever pythons are being culled aren’t eating whatever they had been eating.
And yet there were reasons why they did not do so prior to human-induced changes. This suggests the possibility that the “suitable” spotted owl habitat they are invading may not be optimal spotted owl habitat.
Not really. There are 15,000 spotted owls total. The government intends to kill 500,000 barred owls.
What I’m saying is… how much killing would 500,000 barred owls do? How many rodents do 500,000 barred owls eat. In other words… they may be thinking about more than just the
Impact on spotted owls.
Hm, based on the reports I’ve read, it’s just to save the spotted owls. I read that the barred owls spread west because people planted trees in former grassland/sage steppe, though, so the gov will just end up perpetually killing them, it sounds like. It’ll really suck for those of us who live in areas that are logged continually, without old growth - places where spotted owls cannot live. No barred owls OR spotted owls for us!
The number I read is 30% of the population (500,000 but over the next 30 years). So 70% would still exist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/science/california-barred-spotted-owls.html
I highly doubt the 70% that are left will be in the “low-hanging fruit” areas that are accessible to the public, but maybe I’ll be surprised. I am getting a little tired of seeing cormorants, sealions, mountain goats, and what-not slaughtered because people have wrecked the landscape and killing the most successful wildlife is the cheapest bandaid they can use, I have to admit. I would be surprised if the southern resident orcas and spotted owls don’t go extinct despite the killing programs.
1 Like