A few hundred aggressive cousins of the threatened northern spotted owl may be killed by government agents with shotguns under a proposed federal plan.
The spotted owl was listed as threatened 17 years ago, and its numbers continue to dwindle through much of its range in the Pacific Northwest, federal officials said in proposing the plan to prevent the species from dying out.
The barred owls have crowded their cousins, the spotted owls, out of prime habitat, sometimes even attacking them. The US Fish and Wildlife Service hopes that thinning the number of barred owls will allow the spotted owl to move back into historic nesting areas.
PHOTO: AFP
The recovery plan envisions removing 12 to 32 barred owls in each of 18 areas, first by luring them with recorded calls and an owl decoy, then by shooting them at close range.
The barred owl is not native to the West Coast, but followed settlers across the continent, scientists say.
Controlling the barred owl is a part of a draft plan that includes work on spotted owl habitat, research and monitoring. It could cost $198 million (NT$6.5 billion) over 30 years — the time the Fish and Wildlife Service says may be needed to bring the spotted owl's numbers to the point of recovery.
The Humane Society of the United States called the plan to kill barred owls nonsensical, saying the bird was not the primary threat to the spotted owl.
"The decline of the spotted owl is not due to the barred owls but to the degradation and destruction of old-growth forests" by the timber industry, the society's Lauren Nolfo-Clements said in a statement.(AP)
根據美國聯邦政府提出的一項計畫，政府單位將以獵槍射殺瀕臨絕種的北美斑梟的幾百隻攻擊性強的近親。
聯邦政府官員在提出預防北美斑梟絕種的計畫中指出，班梟在十七年前被列為瀕臨絕種動物，在太平洋西北區許多棲息地的數量也持續減少。
橫斑林鴞會將牠們的近親北美斑梟逐出重要棲息地，有時甚至會攻擊牠們。美國漁業與野生動物局希望藉由減少橫斑林鴞的數量，讓北美斑梟回到原始棲息地。
這項重生計畫預期在十八個區域內，每區移除十二到三十二隻橫斑林鴞，先用錄製好的叫聲和假貓頭鷹誘餌引誘牠們，再近距離射擊。
科學家表示，橫斑林鴞並非原本就棲息在西海岸，而是跟著移民者跨海而來。
控制橫斑林鴞是草案的一部分，其他還包括致力研究和監控北美斑梟的棲息地。這需耗時三十年，斥資一億九千八百萬美元（新台幣六十五億元），美國漁業與野生動物局表示，需要這麼長的時間才能讓北美斑梟的數量回升。
美國人道協會表示這項屠殺橫斑林鴞的計畫沒有意義，因為橫斑林鴞不是北美斑梟的主要威脅。
美國人道協會的羅倫．諾佛克萊門在一項聲明中表示︰「北美斑梟的數量減少並不是因為橫斑林鴞，而是因為老熟林的減少與破壞。」（美聯社╱翻譯︰鄭湘儀）
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