Leupin, E. 2001. Burrowing Owl reintroduction efforts in the Thompson-Nicola region of British Columbia. Journal of Raptor Research [Online] 35(4):392-398. Available: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/jrr/v035n04/p00392-p00398.pdf [February 1, 2012.]

Leupin, E. 2004. Burrowing Owl: Athene cunicularia. Accounts and Measures for Managing Identifies Wildlife [Online]pp10. Available: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/frpa/iwms/documents/Birds/b_burrowingowl.pdf [February 1, 2012.]

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Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) are small, dull-brown owls that inhabit prairie-like grasslands.  The Burrowing Owls obtained their name from their trait of reproducing and nesting in burrows (Leupin 2004). These burrows are made from a variety of species, such as ground squirrels, marmots and badgers (Leupin 2004). In the past, these owls were commonly found primarily in the Southern Interior grasslands, ranging from Kamloops to Ashcroft to Purcell Mountains (Leupin 2001, Leupin 2004). Unfortunately, due to increased amount of urbanization and agricultural development, including overgrazing and pest management, the Burrowing Owl population dramatically declined (Leupin 2001, Leupin 2004). This declination was so dramatic that within B.C, Burrowing Owls have been on the endangered species list since 1978 (Leupin 2004). Since the early 80’s, this population deterioration was noted and there were programs developed to strive towards the reintroduction of Burrowing Owls.

The first attempt at reintroduction was by the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks (MoELP) from 1983 until 1988 (Leupin 2001). Involved with their attempt, the recovery team relocated the Moses Lake, Washington Burrowing Owl families to the Southern regions of the Okanagan (Leupin 2001, Leupin 2004).  This project, unfortunately, did not have the success hoped for and it was ceased in 1994 (Leupin 2001, Leupin 2004).

There was a second attempt at reintroducing Burrowing Owls into Southern B.C. that occurred in 1989 (Leupin 2001, Leupin 2004). This reintroduction process had a goal of reestablishing the population into at least three grassland locations within the Thompson-Nicola region (Leupin 2001, Leupin 2004). The first phase of this process involved analyzing the current [at that time] breeding protocols and factors and improving them in order to allow successful reintroduction (Leupin 2001, Leupin 2004). In doing so, they examined factors such as diet, migratory behavior and mortality within the wild population (Leupin 2001). In order to carry out the reintroduction process, the project used two British Columbia locations to breed the Burrowing Owls. Interestingly, the first and main breeding facility remains at the Kamloops Wildlife Park, which houses 10 breeding pairs (Leupin 2001). The second breeding facility remains at the San Rafael Aviaries, which is located in Stanley Park, Vancouver B.C. (Leupin 2001).

The reintroduction process is still occurring and has made successes. When combining the two breeding sites, as of 2001, there will be enough Burrowing Owls to release as many as 25 breeding pairs in each of the three release sites (Leupin 2001). The release sites are located in the Thompson-Nicola region. They are specific sites chosen for a variety of reasons, such as grassland condition and quality of habitat for rodents that the owls feed on. In future years, the reintroduction project is hoping to continue their work with the burrowing owls and also strengthen the populations of mammals that burrow, in hopes of assisting the Burrowing Owls’ lifestyle when they are released.

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