Danish Little Owls Threatened by Lack of Food During Breeding Season

Owls are known to swallow anything they manage to catch. However a new study states that these birds do not have sufficient food during the breading season and this is one of the major threats for their population.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University discovered that the Danish little owls are threatened due to lack of food during the breeding seasons. To investigate further, they studied the type of landscapes the owls generally hunt for food. They were stunned to notice that the owls preferred to forage in gardens and built-up areas.

Most little owls in other countries prefer hunting for food in grazed areas.  The Danish little owls, however, prefer to hunt in gardens and built-up areas. The finding indicated that the Danish grazing lands have very limited animals to support the little owls.

"Based on other countries, we expected that grazed areas would be most attractive for little owls to forage in, but they often prefer gardens and built-up areas, depending on weather conditions. To break the negative curve for little owls, it's essential that the grazed areas are laid out and managed so that they have a good stock of small animals," Peter Sunde, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, said in a news release.

Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a drastic fall in the population of the little owls in both Western and Central Europe. In 2005, it was estimated that there were 100 breeding pairs of Danish little owls. Five percent of annual decline is due to the limited availability of limited food during breeding seasons from May to July. In present times, the little owl population is presumed to have a major fall with just 50 pairs existing in the wild. 

The results are based on the analysis of a study conducted on smallest owls in Himmerland from 2005-2007 in which researchers radio tagged 29 owls. The researchers also noticed that owls adapt their foraging according to the weather conditions.

"Little owls are food generalists and eat everything from earthworms and crane fly larvae to mice and lark fledglings. It therefore makes really good sense to adapt their foraging to the weather and season....," explains Kasper Thorup, Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen.

The owls hunt for mice near buildings during the frosty weather. During windy and warmers days, it hunts for earthworms in fields by hopping on the ground. Despite this ability, they struggle to feed their young ones due to lack of food.

The study was documented in the journal PLOS One.