Barred Owls and The Northern Spotted Owl
Barred Owls may be partly responsible for the recent decline of the Northern Spotted Owl, native to Washington, Oregon, and California. Since the 1960s, Barred Owls have been expanding their range westward from the eastern US, perhaps because man-made changes have created new suitable habitat in the west. When Spotted Owls and Barred Owls share the same environment, the latter are generally more aggressive and out-compete the former, leading to decreased populations of the native owls. They have also been known to interbreed, with the hybrids named "Sparred Owl" or "Botted Owl".
On 5 April 2007, White House officials announced a proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that shooting Barred Owls would aid in effects caused on the Spotted Owl. The proposal called for 18 sites to be constructed in Spotted Owl territory, where 12–32 owls could be shot at each site. Environmentalists fear that increasing blame in Barred Owls as population-decreasing proponents in Spotted Owls will mean less attention will be paid to territorial protection, and logging will be resumed in protected Spotted Owl areas.
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