Biologists Recommend Urgent Action to Protect California Spotted Owls
In the Pacific Northwest, the range expansion of Barred Owls has already contributed to a conservation crisis for Northern Spotted Owls.
Unraveling the Mystery of the Long-whiskered Owlet
Every museum has its “greatest hits” tour — those specimens steeped in museum lore that you show off to visitors.
Despite Habitat Protection, Endangered Owls Decline in Mount Rainier National Park
When the Northern Spotted Owl was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, the primary threat to the species was the loss of the old-growth forest it depends on. However, new research published in The Condor: Ornithological Applications shows that the Northern Spotted Owl population in Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park has declined sharply in the …
Speciation with Gene Flow in Northern Saw-whet Owls
Scientists have long thought that for two related populations of birds to evolve into separate species, they needed to be completely separated. This usually means the kind of total separation produced by isolation on islands or by features such ice sheets, mountain ranges, or rivers. However, the complex distributions and migratory nature of many birds mean that long-term total separation of bird populations, long the assumption in speciation research, is actually not necessary for speciation to occur.
Do Burrowing Owls Disperse Plague-Infected Fleas?
Western Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) and Pulex irritans, the so-called human flea, have a curious host-parasite relationship. Although we’ve known about it for some time, many details of their connection remain unclear, including why it appears mainly in the northwestern portion of the Burrowing Owl’s range despite the fact that both species have much broader geographic distributions.
How Vulnerable are California’s Great Gray Owls to Wildfire?
Throughout western North America, the combination of longer, hotter dry seasons and dense forests is yielding more frequent, larger, and more severe wildfires, including immense “megafires.” Habitat loss from increased fire activity could put wildlife species that depend on mature forest at risk.