Burrowing Owl

April 14th at the Fresno California Waste Water Treatment Plant.
These Owls are disappearing because of comercialization. Fresno April 14th at the Fresno California Waste Water Treatment Plant.
These Owls are disappearing because of comercialization. Fresno County is the home of the states second largest Burrowing Owl population but things are changing too quickly.
Fresno is the fastest growing county in human population and these Owls are being destroyed because of this.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Owl
• Burrowing
• Bird
• Birds
• Wildlife

[aarondhp20]

Can you tell me what detriment mankind would face if they went extinct? Not trying to say anything going extinct would be a good thing. I just want to know how this would affect us negatively.

[birder74]

Owls are a key to rodent population control. Farmers rely on these to grow crops and maintain a fruitful harvest, if Owl populations decrease, harvests decrease, rodent populations increase upsetting a balance within the ecosystem and effecting us negatively. Here in the San Joaquin valley where farming is essential and the most fruitful in the world providing the U.S. with 2/3's of it's produce you must be concerned since these will have a direct effect to your wallet if they disappear.

[aarondhp20]

@birder74

So this is the only species of owl in the area? If the rodent populations increase minimally, we may also see an explosion in the reproductive rates in other owls. Nature has a pretty good way of balancing itself out.

[birder74]

@aarondhp20 You probably don't live in the valley, we have over 100,000 sq miles of flat farmland. The beauty is a raptor NOT needing a tree to nest in is perfect for farmers. The San Joaquin valley has little to NO nesting trees for any other raptor. Nature has no way to balance this, since there is no other raptor that nests underground. Mankind has removed all the trees disrupting this possibility. You see, how important these are? We simply must respect what we have, without that, we lose!

[aarondhp20]

@birder74 I can definitely see the benefit then if there aren't many trees for other raptors. So are the owls within the valley currently ok? Where does the threat come from?

[birder74]

@aarondhp20 Comes from urban development mostly. Fresno county had the second largest population in the state and has been decreased in excess of 50% because of building. These owls can be relocated successfully if only they took the time. The state of California has put them on a watch list because of this. With the housing crisis here the building has slowed down to a crawl. We have a 35% unemployment here in Fresno County, pretty bad.

[Thewhiteandorange]

"I am a ninja. I am a silent, invisible master of concealment..."

[aarondhp20]

@shtermin Yes it does, because I will never choose the needs of any creature above a human beings. It's just not in my nature. That kind of empathy doesn't exist anywhere else in nature so why are you surprised?

Also can you tell me what percentage of animals that has ever lived, exist today?

[shtermin]

@aarondhp20 does everything need to be qualified on whether it affects 'mankind'? humans negatively affect humankind (and most other things on this planet) probably more than anything else.

[XionYazuka]

Burrowers gonna burrow.

[Arianna2321]

DIGGER!!

[Greatmanwich]

Anyone else see this and immediately think of the movie critters?

[aarondhp20]

@birder74 Yeah I'm in Monterey county atm and we're really bad off. It's 12% statewide average so I know it's real bad in big cities. If there is one things California has been good about in the past it's protecting aminals so hopefully these fluffy cute owls will make a comeback. We have enough houses. What we need is people to get the hell out of debt.