Image courtesy of BC Wildife Park Staff
What We Do The BC Wildlife Park (BCWP) is working towards saving the Burrowing Owl from extinction. Our Species Survival Plan for the Endangered Burrowing Owl is to help stabilize a wild population in British Columbia. We are an active member of the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society (BOCS) of BC. Our goal is to achieve a stable and returning population of this migratory owl, habitat improvement and public education to prevent further habitat loss and destruction in BC's grasslands. The burrowing owl reintroduction program is a partnership between the BC Wildlife Park staff, the BOCS, the Ministry of Environment (MOE), many volunteers and private landowners in South and Central BC (Thompson- Nicola and Okanagan regions).
About the Owls Burrowing Owls are small owls, less than 20cm tall, who migrate annually to the coast of Mexico and California. Birds are an important indicator of ecosystem health and can play important roles within the food chain of the grasslands. Burrowing owls were extirpated (locally extinct) from the British Columbia grasslands by 1980, as their population steadily declined from the 1920’s; the beginning of large-scale agricultural practices in Western Canada. These are the only owls in North America that live in underground burrows dug by mammals. As fossorial (digging) mammals like the black-footed ferret, ground squirrels and marmots were killed off on farmlands, natural burrows became rare. Rat poisons, DDT, insecticides led to a reduced and changing food supply and mammal trapping and killing caused the scarcity of natural burrows which all led to the burrowing owl population crashing in the 1970’s.
About the Program In the early 80’s and up to 1988, MOE translocated owls to BC without much success of those owls returning. In 1989, owls were brought into captivity in the BCWP and by 1990 we had established a breeding program with a new facility specifically designed for breeding a unique type of owl. In the early 90’s, owls were bred and 20+ owlets were released into artificial burrows in the grasslands each spring.
Burrowing Owl Chicks - photo courtesy of Adrienne Clay These artificial burrows are installed and maintained by volunteers with the BOCS. There have been over 1200 burrows installed in the wild since 1990 but with the annual maintenance required, many have disappeared into the earth. Around 400 artificial burrows are regularly maintained and still in use. In 2002 the BCWP constructed a larger breeding facility, and increased the offspring production from 20 to 50 each year with the ability to produce up to 100 offspring. As one of three facilities, we managed to produce half of the owls released to the wild each year. The design of the Burrowing Owl Recovery Centre was developed by staff at the British Columbia Wildlife Park. The facility and program is so successful that it has been copied by other facilities in North America.
In 2004, the BC Wildlife Park received an award of excellence from CAZA (Canada's Accredited Zoos and Aquariums) for our captive breeding program. Today, according to the National Burrowing Owl Team, the British Columbia Wildlife Park is a leader in captive breeding of Burrowing Owls for release and in fact, is the largest and most successful breeder of Burrowing Owls in North America.
In 2005, trials were conducted by a student at UBC (Aimee Mitchell RPBio, MSc) to determine if soft-release enclosures (https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0066604 ) would benefit the owls. In fact, not only did they help, the owls were 60% less likely to disperse. Aimee’s research led to a complete change in release techniques. Since 1991, the British Columbia Wildlife Park has released well over 1500 owls and over 2500 have been released to the wild. Over the last 5 years, BC is beginning to see owls returning in stable numbers, but the population of owls in each location is still not enough to keep a viable genetic diversity. Endangered species recovery is a long process, and we are beginning to see the tip of the iceberg as the population may be stabilizing with 3 decades of hard work.
Tracking the Owls In 1997 owls were given little backpack VHF transmitters and tracked by the Canadian Wildlife Service on their migratory pathway down to New Mexico and California. Over the past decade, more owls have been mounted with new technology backpacks enabled with GPS telemetry transmitters. We are learning more about where they go, and how they migrate than ever before. (http://www.microwavetelemetry.com/uploads/newsletters/TrackerNewsWinter10%203.pdf) It has been said that with the continued encroaching of human settlement into the last of the remaining native grasslands, the only way to keep burrowing owls on the map in BC, is to continue to provide artificial burrow systems in their habitat. With strong partnerships between Conservation Societies like us, the BOCS, universities, government and private stakeholders, we can keep this owl from disappearing and help the global community by adding to the pool of research and knowledge that is growing each year.
What You Can Do Donate your time to volunteer with the burrowing owl programs.(http://www.microwavetelemetry.com/uploads/newsletters/TrackerNewsWinter10%203.pdf) Donate funds to help rear and release the endangered and iconic species. (http://www.bcwildlife.org/makeadonation.htm) Provide materials needed for the construction of artificial burrows or pen maintenance. (email Adrienne@BCwildlife.org) Learn about our ecosystem and the importance of protecting habitat. https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/what_we_do/protecting_wild_lands/okanagan_national_park https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/grasslands/ http://www.protectbiodiversity.ca/media/news_item/burrowing_owls_returning_to_nicola_valley Protect Habitat Purchase or invest in grassland. Give to the charity of your choice and tell them you want to protect the remaining 25% of Canada’s most endangered ecosystem: the grasslands!