Really good article on the Burrow Owl from LA Times. The headline made it sound gloomy, and it is a bit, but very well written and goes have some hopeful elements and of course love for one of our favorite owls here. I highly recommend you read the whole thing, but I’ve given you a TL;DR if that’s all you require.
It’s kind of hard not to be smitten with the burrowing owl.
Standing just 9 inches tall and weighing less than a cup of coffee, these owls prefer to live in the ground, where they feed mainly on insects and small rodents, rather than in trees. Their miniature size, feathery floof and comically big eyes give these birds of prey a charisma that captivates the lens of wildlife photographers and the hearts of even the most clinical environmental scientists.
“Once you see a burrowing owl, you just fall in love,” said Catherine Portman, president of the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society.
But their cuteness hasn’t protected this grassland species from a dangerous decline in population. This month, several wildlife conservation groups petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to list these owls as endangered or threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.
Their report cites a 2007 statewide survey that measured an 11% decline in burrowing owls since 1993; although no comprehensive population count has be done since, they point to regional studies that show troubling numbers. Researchers Robert L. Wilkerson and Rodney B. Siegel counted 6,408 burrowing owl pairs in the Imperial Valley from 2006-07, but according to another study done by Jeffrey Manning, more than 1 in 4 breeding pairs had disappeared.
Top issues for the Burrow Owl:
- Loss of animals that build burrows
- Predation by domestic dogs and cats
- Invasive grasses not providing the right ecosystem
- Land development
- Laws from the 1970s and beaurocracy in general
Burkett [CA Fish and Wildlife scientist] manages a wide array of species in the state and said she’s overwhelmed by the need and the lack of resources she has to address the problems facing many of these animals. The last time they put together a comprehensive report on burrowing owls was in 2012, and even that report took four years to put together. She likens the situation to a hospital where they’re trying to address many patients — species tagged as “special interest” like the burrowing owl are in the ICU, but most of their resources are going toward endangered and threatened species in the emergency room.
The doom:
“We need to protect burrowing owls before urbanization takes hold,” Trulio [scientist] stated. “Once urbanization takes hold, what really happens is land values become so high that you can’t protect them.”
The hope:
“Seeing an owl opens your eyes to something very mythical or primordial,” [Laura Bentino, wildlife photographer] said. “It elicits emotion not just from me, but anyone who sees them.”