Project

Owl Conservation

Objectives

To create and implement an awareness program amongst farmers through the introduction of Barn Owls and Spotted Eagle-Owls as biological pest control agents. Bio-control is the managed use of one organism to limit the numbers or spread of another. In concept, it is a better way of controlling pests or weeds because it pits predators or parasites against prey or hosts, and relies on the natural impact of one or the other to reduce the scale of an undesired imbalance. The owl bio-control concept is a much simpler and less risky approach to pest management.

In farming areas with pest rodent problems, Barn Owl numbers can be increased by providing suitable nest boxes, spread evenly over the farmland, for occupation and use by breeding owls. Once in residence, the owls will hugely increase the levels of predation pressure on the nocturnal rodent population, and reduce the rodent pest factor in the area both by killing and eating large numbers of rats and mice and by limiting the extent to which the remaining rodents are prepared to venture away from protective cover.

Overall, using owls to control rodent damage is twice as effective as using poison, and much less expensive in the long-term. An optimal array of owl nest boxes in an area requires about one box per 20 ha of cropland, with each box spaced at least 400m from its nearest neighbour. Most importantly, the Barn Owl and nest box approach avoids the severe and systemic environmental costs of repeated doses of toxins: other rodent predators are unaffected, properties remain ecologically functional, and farmland is left healthy and productive.