Northern Spotted Owl Research Paper

The Threatened Northern Spotted Owl

Imagine you’re a spotted owl mother who just hatched her 4 newborn owlet children. Obviously you’re thrilled to be starting this new chapter of your little owl life with a brand new family but you’re also shadowed with the fear of the young ones safety. The Great Horned and Barred Owl are stalking your new members for a late night snack and the opportunity to run you out of your home like the true savages they are. As their numbers in population increase, your own kind becomes more threatened. Once efforts to expand the Northern Spotted Owls habitat are increased, shared space with the Barred Owl is further limited and protection of their young is improved, then their population will soon increase. That
happy little Spotted Owl family of yours will stretch to continue on with generations to come.

In nature, the Spotted Owl can be described as a chestnut colored bird with white oval spots on their head which gave them their name. This nocturnal beauty mates for life and is a medium size that has a lifespan of 20 years. A mother Spotted Owl can lay 1-4 eggs. Their prey consists of smaller forest animals like Flying Squirrels and Mice which they find in their natural habitat of older growth forests. “Northern spotted owls have a distinct flight pattern, involving a series of rapid wingbeats interspersed with gliding flight. This allows them to glide silently down upon their prey.” (Basic). They prefer old trees, logs and open treetops to nest. The older forests tend to be around 150-200 years old filled with a variety of trees of different shapes and sizes. They inhabit more forest lands in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. There is also a large population in the Olympic Peninsula. The older forests are the main place they settle down and hunt in. “Each pair needs a large amount of land for hunting and nesting, and although they do not migrate, spotted owls may shift their ranges in response to seasonal changes, such as heavy snows, that make hunting difficult.” (Basic). As the land availability becomes smaller, this makes it harder for them to survive because the pairs become closer together.

Their largest threat to them is that their habitat is being compromised due to timber harvesting, natural disasters like fire and windstorms and having to be in close corners with their competition the Barred Owl who is a larger and more agressive species compaired to the Spotted Owl. “When spotted owls are forced to live in small patches of forest they become more susceptible to starvation, predation, or further loss of habitat due to natural destruction such as windstorms.” (OFWO). Because many owlets do not survive the first few weeks of life due to starvation and being taken by other animals such as the Barred Owl, their numbers become even more limited. There was also a huge controversy created over the loss of lumber jobs and the loss of the owl population. The Northwest Forest Plan of 1994 was created due to all this outrage which promised a spesific amount of timber harvest and protection for the species that depend on the old growth forests. This is one of the major actions being taken to protect the Spotted Owls that is having a positive effect on their numbers.

The Northern Spotted Owl was listed as a threatened under the Endangered Species Species Act in 1990 with protection provided in 1994 by the Northwest Forest Plan.
A recovery plan was established in 2008 along with the first critical habitat. The Late-Successional Reserves (LSR) was created across the owl range for suitable nesting areas. This recovery plan includes efforts to recommend non occupied forest lands of the owl to be harvested rather than their current habitat. They also started an experiment to manage the competition such as the Barred Owl and removed many of them from a shared area with the Spotted Owl to see how their numbers were affected and if it made a difference. The studies showed that it did increase the Spotted Owls population growth due to greater space and less of a threat. “Estimates suggest that the amount of suitable habitat available to spotted owls has been reduced by over 60 percent in the last 190 years. Owl numbers appear to have declined annually since 1985 when many studies began. Spotted owls are currently declining at an average rate of 2.9 percent rangewide each year.” (OFWO). Unless in the next few years we can conserve their habitats in these forests, they are at great risk of
extinction. The Spotted Owls numbers are continuing to decrease even though there are efferts being made everyday to protect and keep this species with us. Overexploitation will hopefully allow the issue to become more aware to people as to what is happening to this creatures habitat. Our current solutions are only making a very small impact but with further actions to help expand our forest areas there could be hope for the Northern Spotted Owls.