Plan to Help Rare (Spotted) Owl by Killing Others (Barred Owls)

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2007/apr/27/042700074.html

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A few hundred aggressive cousins of the threatened northern spotted owl may be killed by government agents with shotguns under a proposed federal plan.

The spotted owl was listed as threatened 17 years ago, and its numbers continue to dwindle through much of its range in the Pacific Northwest, federal officials said Thursday in proposing the plan to prevent the species from dying out.

The barred owls have crowded their cousins, the spotted owls, out of prime habitat, sometimes even attacking them. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes that thinning the number of barred owls will allow the spotted owl to move back into historic nesting areas and increase its numbers.

The recovery plan envisions removing 12 to 32 barred owls in each of 18 areas, first by luring them with recorded calls and an owl decoy, then by shooting them at close range.

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