Grade 12 report: Barn Owls in Ontario, Canada?

Question

Hello,

I am a grade 12 student doing a report on Barn Owls for my Environmental Studies Class. I was wondering if there were any willing people out there that would be willing to answer a few questions?

1) What do you think Barn Owls need to survive? (climate wise, food, shelter, etc)

2)What do you think, if anything, is being done in Canada to help this species?

3)What is the biggest thing Humans are doing that are contrubuting to the depletion on this owl?

4) Did you realize that the barn owl was an endangered species in Ontario? With only 3 known breeding pairs?

5) How important do you think this own actaully is to our environment?

6) What do you feel is the biggest factor contributing to the disapearence of this owl?

Thank you to anyone who responds, Please note: I will use some direct quotes in my report, but no names.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Hi, to be honest with you, I don't know anything about Barn Owls. I just saw your Border Collie picture,and wanted to tell you that she looks just like Petunia. Then I read the rest of your question,and I found these links on the computer,with every answer to any question on Ontario Barn Owls. It is very interesting,and I am learning about something that I never gave any thought to before. All because of your question. It doesn't matter where in the world you live,or how you live ,or what you do. If you are learning something, you are gaining knowledge .Something you didn't know before. You made me aware of this problem. Check out this site= Canadian Barn Owls and their Habitat. Thanks Dear. Byee

Answer 2

WOW!  This question definitely deserves stars!  Very interesting question.  I wish I had your teacher, sounds like an interesting course.  I did not know there were only three breeding pairs left in Ontario.

1. Barn owls tend to nest in sheltered structures (whether man made or deadfalls , burrows etc. and eat small rodents, birds, etc.)  They are called barn owls because they are opportunistic and barns are "stable" ;-) places to build a nest (doesn't lose it leaves every winter) plus they help the farmers by keeping the mice population down so they normally encourage the owls to stay.

2. I don't know.  Are they protected, on the endangered list?  Breeding programs using injured birds????

3. Probably the use of pesticides in growing commercial corn and canola crops  along with habitat destruction due to urban sprawl.

4. No I didn't

5. Very important.  "Not every 'canary in a coal mine' is a canary!"

6. = #3 + "it's the way nature works".  Owls are at or near the top of their food chains.  When crops are sprayed and prey animals poisoned it is not long before the effects are concentrated in the hunters ... HAD YOUR BLOOD MERCURY LEVEL CHECKED LATELY?  A lot of Ontario polticians got really scared when they found out they were not immune and that there were dozens of industrial poisons present in their blood.

To quote myself (see link): "People don't care about the environment until AFTER it kills PEOPLE. Then they bury it all and move on."  Feel free to use it.

Remember the Walkerton Water Scandal?  

Keep a close eye on the coming election and keep in mind which party was in charge when that happened.  Keep an eye on the proposal for new voting rules too ... best kept secret in the election (you choose your candidate versus the party chooses).  A lot of your friends who are seniors are eligible to vote next month.  Pass it on.

Answer 3

Can't help you with Canadian information. But we have barn owls and live in East Yorkshire England so maybe this will be of some help as a comparison.

1) Climate: The rain kills them. Very wet early summers kill both the owls, who get chilled, and the chicks. Harsh wet winters prevent them breeding the next year. It also reduces the amount of prey when it is very wet.

Food: field vole, wood mouse, brown rat and common  shrew.  You can often find the pellets (like poo they spit back up that contains all the parts of the animal that the Owls cannot digest, bones, fur).

The Owl Conservationists take these pellets annually from our farm so they can do research on what the Owls are eating and in what proportion.

Shelter: Owls dislike nesting in barns unless they are  

draught free, dark and undisturbed.  Open barns are no good. Even in closed barns they really need Owl Boxes placed up high in the barns on the rafters. They do not like it to be noisy, or to be disturbed at all but particularly when they have chicks.

Breeding: If they breed too early, the wet weather can kill them and there is not enough prey around. 3-5 owlets usually in a batch. When there is a good spring, they sometimes have an early and a late batch.

Land: Need bio diversity. Rough grassland that supports a high vole population so long grass for hunting. No roads, see below. Farmers have been encouraged to leave grass long and wild. This method of increasing bio diversity was started in this region in 1992 it is called set aside.

2)   East Yorkshire England:

Several programs have helped increase numbers

A program to provide owl boxes for appropriate barns

A second program encouraging farmers to leave areas to grow wild.

3)   The conversion of old quiet barns. Most have gone, they are sold off as barn conversions and used as housing. Agricultural practices as described above. They need biodiversity.  Deaths by car accidents. Owls particularly need long grass for hunting. When hunting barn owls fly slowly, low over fields and hover before swooping for mice, voles, shrews and rats, though they will occasionally take small birds and bats. But some 45 per cent of all barn owls are killed by lorries and cars every year on the roads as they swoop down to the motorway and dual carriageway verges while in the search of food. Heavily populated regions with high density of road networks such as south-east England have the most deaths.

Conservationists are calling for road design to be changed to provide a barrier of hedgerow between the asphalt and verge to make the birds fly higher.



4)   In East Yorkshire England programs started 1992 after experts found that barn owl numbers across the UK had fallen by 69 per cent since the 1930s.

5) Vitally.

6)  Intensive agricultural practices so massive loss of habitat and old barns have been converted so loss of nesting sites. Similarly barns have more value to farmers, so they are used more, owls are disturbed and don't breed/bring up young.