An Owl with an Image Problem!

     In Africa, the owl is an omen. Many African cultures believe that if a person sees an owl, someone they know will die or something bad will happen in the village. This is a problem for the owl because villagers will kill owls or scare them away causing them to lose their home, food or nest. So, how do we solve this problem? Some scientists are looking for the answers.

           

      In Kenya, scientists studied how local farmers viewed owls, specifically the Mackinder’s Eagle Owl (Bubo capensis). They asked the farmers (72 interviewed) if they believed owls were a negative sign, such as a death or tragedy. Then the scientists asked if they had negative, no feelings or positive feelings towards owls. Almost half the farmers (44%) had no feelings toward owls but 30% felt negatively. Only fifteen farmers had positive feelings about owls. What was different about the fifteen farmers that thought positively about owls? Simply, the answer was money.

    

     Owls provide a very important service (ecoservice) for the farmers; they provide pest control! All farmers interviewed expressed pest problems on their farms. Small mammals such as rats and mice eat their crops. Obviously, this causes the farmer to lose money. Over half the farmers did nothing to control the pests but the others used chemicals to kill insects or rats and mice. Even some farmers used poison to kill pests by using large amounts of these chemicals. This action not only kills the pests, it kills the animals that eat them.

      

     The scientists determined that farmers that felt positively about owls also understood that they were good for eating farm pests. The farmers that had no feeling or negative feelings did not think of owls as pest control. The solution seems to be to educate the farmers on the free ecoservice of pest control that owls provide. This free ecoservice is not just provided by owls in Africa but all raptors all over the Earth. Please remember when you use poison, you are not just poisoning the intended but raptors as well!

To learn more about owls try these websites:

http://www.owlpages.com/

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse/43,13/

http://www.owls.org/

Literature Cited

Ogada, D. L., and P. M. Kibuthu. 2008. Conserving Mackinder's eagle owls in farmlands of Kenya: assessing the influence of pesticide use, tourism and local knowledge of owl habits in protecting a culturally loathed species. Environmental Conservation 35:252–260.