😲US Government Wants Hunters to Shoot 500,000 Owls

[GOYABEAN]

🦉 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants hunters to shoot more than 500,000 barred owls to help protect other native species.

Barred owls are an invasive species in the Pacific Northwest, originating on the U.S. East Coast, and they pose a huge threat to native protected species, including northern spotted owls.

As part of a draft management plan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) wants to cull these invasive owls, and hopes to enlist hunters to shoot half a million of them over the next 30 years.

Barred owls have been in the Pacific Northwest since the 1950s, and they now outnumber northern spotted owls across Washington, Oregon and California. They pose such a threat to northern spotted owls as they are more aggressive and have a more varied diet, eating anything from insects and amphibians to fish and other birds. They are also larger and more territorial than the native owls, meaning that they displace the northern spotted owls, disrupting their nesting, competing with them for food, and even attacking them when they come too close.

In areas where barred owls are present in higher numbers, northern spotted owl populations are declining rapidly. They are now listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, with populations having declined by between 35 percent and 80 percent over the last 20 years.

https://www.newsweek.com/invasive-sp...thwest-1850348

[Qtrborecrazy]

Let the government take the heat and fallout from the tree huggers for killing all the owls.

[ROCK-IT3]

So, the government doesn't want animals to cross imaginary borders because of the affect on other animals already living within those borders, and is promoting killing the interlopers. Interesting.

[JaySmith]

So, the government doesn't want animals to cross imaginary borders because of the affect on other animals already living within those borders, and is promoting killing the interlopers. Interesting.

You're not supposed to realize things like that.

[Delkal]

Never going to happen and this story has so many holes in it I consider it clickbait just meant to enrage people. Not only are owls federally protected but they are not easy to hunt so I don't know how they expect to kill a half million of them. And imagine the outrage when people read they will let every hunter in the pacific northwest blast owls on sight.

But be careful and only shoot the Barrel owl and not the critically endangered spotted owl.

Evil invasive owl you should shoot.

barrel-owl.jpg

Critically engendered spotted owl that it is a felony to shoot.

northern-spotted-owl.jpg

[Aggies Coach]

So, the government doesn't want animals to cross imaginary borders because of the affect on other animals already living within those borders, and is promoting killing the interlopers. Interesting.

The owls don*t work cheap.

[tarzan]

Wish I shoot a couple. I used to sit out in the evening ang enjoy the flying squirrels on the property, they are gone for some time now. Game Commission says owls are the problem Fed. says harm an Owl, even pick up a feather from a road and prison for you.

[Sandcut]

Never going to happen and this story has so many holes in it I consider it clickbait just meant to enrage people. Not only are owls federally protected but they are not easy to hunt so I don't know how they expect to kill a half million of them. And imagine the outrage when people read they will let every hunter in the pacific northwest blast owls on sight.

But be careful and only shoot the Barrel owl and not the critically endangered spotted owl.

Evil invasive owl you should shoot.

barrel-owl.jpg

Critically engendered spotted owl that it is a felony to shoot.

northern-spotted-owl.jpg

The interesting thing is that barred and spotted owls are known to mate and hybridize.

Shoot, don't shoot?

[bogey1]

I thought it said the us wants to shoot hunter.

[JAKIII]

A controlled hunt seems like a good way to "cull" the invasive flock, although 500K sounds more like eradicate.

Like Delkal alludes, how the heck do you prevent spotted owls from being shot by mistake?