Burrowing Owl
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Science Concept & Application
Burrowing owls are fascinating and cute creatures. They are special owls on how they run and are considered to fly that well. The reason why is because they spent most of their time on the ground, but they fly just like normal owls. Even though they are named burrowing owls, and are seen digging, they normally use the burrows of other creatures, but if needed, they create burrows themselves.
Burrowing owls are not like regular owls. The reason is that they are actually diurnal (awake during the day), and most are chaparral hunters, which means they are mostly active during sunrise, and sunset. Even though they have greatly different behaviors from other owls, they still retain the great night vision and flight of other owl species. They also live in desert, savannah, and badland environments. Their peculiar behavior of normally running and not flying, is due to there not being many tall trees in the environments they live in. When a burrowing owl is frightened it returns to its burrow and creates rattling and hissing sounds to ward off the predators. The sound is like a rattlesnake to make the predators think twice between going in there with a rattlesnake, or chasing the little burrowing owl down into the burrow. Burrowing owls hunt insects, small vertebrates, like rats, and they (but rarely) also hunt bats. Their methods of hunting are perching on a branch, then swooping down on the prey like any other owl, or chasing their prey on foot. |
Career
The career I chose was ornithology. Also, a person who specializes in it is called an ornithologist. It is a career in zoology that deals with birds, which sometimes includes falconry. Some tools they use are the Emlen funnel, which is used to study the orientation behavior in migratory birds within a laboratory, or rings/ bands to serve in order to keep track of a certain bird’s identity.
Scientist
My scientist is David H. Johnson. In the 1950’s the badger had an extinction at the Umatilla Army Depot, which made a shortage in burrows that the burrowing owls use as nesting sites, so David came in with a team and installed the first artificial burrows in 2008, with only 3 or 4 pairs of owls left there. Because of that, the burrowing owl population increased from the first pairs, to be around 45-55 pairs in 2024-2025. Also, that was all because of him (his students call him DJ). The badgers also likely died due to inbreeding, though everyone blamed it on coyotes.
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