Saving Spotted Owls
An educational supplement to Kennebec's forthcoming book,
Mubu The Little Animal Doctor™
Mubu & Hoot
For about forty years, Dr. Eric Forsman, a research biologist for the United States Forest Service, has worried about spotted owls.
The spotted owls Eric studies settle in northwest United States. Spotted owls love to live in the big evergreen trees that have lived for at least 200 years. Tall and cool, these forests wear the drapings of their age. Mossy green old-man's beard lichens hang like Christmas decorations in these ancient woods.
The Baby Hoot who Mubu kept in her bedroom during the weeks it took for the frightened owl to grow up strong and healthy was a smaller bird than the spotted owls who survive today in America and Canada.
Eric Forsman began studying the spotted owl in the 1970s when loggers started cutting down the owls’ homes- the great old trees that provided so many of nature’s secrets that have been beneficial to the health of human beings.
For example, scientists have made helpful drugs like Taxol, which is used to treat lung and breast cancer, found only from the inner bark of one species of yew tree. The yew tree is only found in old growth forests where the spotted owls live.
Spotted owls prefer old-growth forests with tree branches that are high and open enough for the owls to fly between and underneath the trees.
Preferred areas have large trees with broken tops, deformed limbs or large holes used by the owls as nesting sites.
Dr. Forsman explains how spotted owls like to fly when they are hunting. They beat their wings rapidly a few times and then like to glide silently between the branches, hunting for flying squirrels, wood rats, mice and other small rodents.
They have unusual eyes and ears that help them hunt. Spotted owls are one of the only owl species with dark colored eyes. Most owls have yellow or orange eyes.
Their ears are different in shape so that the spotted owl can pinpoint the location of any sound in three-dimensional space. A night hunter, the owl can perch silently in the forest and listen intently.
If it hears the scratching of a wood rat on a log or the landing of a flying squirrel on the trunk of a tree, the spotted owl noiselessly launches itself toward the sound. Its prey hears no flapping of wings, only the sudden grip of the owl’s talons around its body.
The spotted owls, therefore, use their ears to spot the prey, and need their special night vision to avoid hitting tree trunks while in flight.
Another unusual fact about spotted owls is that the female is larger and heavier than the male. Scientists believe this is due to the fact that the female performs all the nest duties, such as laying the eggs and caring for the babies, while the male does almost all the hunting for food for the family.
Perhaps the smaller size of the male allows him to eat less of the prey he catches, so he can pass on more to the growing family. Also his size makes him more agile so he can catch flying and jumping prey more easily.
Each pair needs a large amount of land for hunting and nesting. Although they do not migrate, spotted owls may shift their ranges in response to seasonal changes, such as heavy snows, that make hunting difficult.
Many people today talk about how to help the North American spotted owl continue living in our crowded world.
Because people are trying to force spotted owls out of their precious living space, today there are fewer than ten pairs of Northern spotted owls in Canada, 1,200 pairs in Oregon, 560 pairs in northern California and less than 500 pairs in the state of Washington.
The United States government has made laws to reduce logging activities in the old growth forest, but people who make their living cutting down trees still challenge the rules.
However, the biggest problem facing Dr. Forsman in his struggle to save the spotted owl has been the arrival in the American northwest forests of a relative of the spotted owl known as the barred owl. The barred owl, a bigger bird (20% larger), one with a greater appetite than the spotted owl, used to live in eastern U.S. Some scientists blame the invasion of barred owls on climate change. Whatever the reason, spotted owls are disappearing three times faster than biologists had feared. In Canada’s old growth forest, only one dozen spotted owls can be found.
One scientist calls barred owls, “the new bully on the block.”
Conservationists say it is too soon to give up on the spotted owl, and that the fight to save the bird has helped benefit the forests by providing clearer air and water and homes for hundreds of other species, including the endangered salmon.
Coming Soon.... Mubu & Hoot!
Copyright @ 2012 by Peter Alexander and Kennebec Entertainment, LLC
