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Nerdy Curio

 February 3, 2020

Barred Owls Invade the Sierra Nevada

2 CQ

Today's Nerdy Curio is brought to you by 60-Second Science. By listening to the sounds of the forest, biologists were able to identify an invasion of barred owls in spotted owl habitat. Christopher Intagliata reports.

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Aired January 25, 2020

All 60-Second Science content is available at www.scientificamerican.com

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    3 Comments
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    David H
    Are you kidding me. You are going to kill one species of owl because its range is expanding. Haven’t eastern screech owls existed with barred owls for thousands of years. It’s hubris to think you know the long term consequences of barred owl population fluctuations is going to be. Of course people care about the future of spotted owls and habitat protection is probably still the key factor, but lethal action, seriously? No, seriously?
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    Chris R
    The key is biodiversity. The loss of any species should be thoroughly considered and avoided at most if not all costs. If this one species will wipe out another then it should likely be managed (by lethal force as needed) to protect from losing the other. Especially when we may be responsible for the conditions that would allow one species to dominate over another and rapidly change the balance in an area then we bear responsibility for conservation of what worked for hundreds of generations
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    Chris R
    Hubris, absolutely, however thinking that allowing the destruction of one species simply to avoid killing another species which is invasive is sheer audacity. A change that fast doesn’t allow the other species to evolve or even react. Maybe it’s okay if that species does end up a terminated branch on the tree of evolution in the long term but we’re not talking long term here. To do nothing during this catastrophe for the one species should be considered worse. Biodiversity is key, support that.
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