Northern Spotted Owl in Shasta Trinity National Forest, California. Photo credit Ryan Heppler
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
The Northern spotted owl, Strix occidentalis caurina, (NSO) is the flagship threatened species of the Pacific Northwest. Federally listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, the NSO continues to decline at a rate of about 4% throughout its range. Despite the fact that the NSO is one of the best-studied wild vertebrate species in the world, the relative importance of the threats that it faces remain controversial.
Conservation Canines, scat detection dog, Max with a Northern Spotted Owl
Without question, one of the most serious threats facing the Northern spotted owl is the recent range expansion of another closely related owl species, the Barred owl (BO), Strix varia. Because BOs may attack and kill NSO, NSO are known to vocalize less when around BOs. This poses a serious problem for the manager whose primary means of establishing NSO presence is NSO vocal response to simulated calls.
When repeated vocalization surveys yield no NSO vocal response for three consecutive years, the territory is considered unoccupied and habitat protection is lifted. However, vocalization survey results may be unreliable if NSO are unlikely to vocalize due to BO presence. To address this problem we developed a new survey technique using Conservation Canines, scat detection dogs trained to locate owl pellets by scent.
Barred Owl Detection during the 2010 field season
We compared success of detection dog surveys to vocalization surveys of seventeen 2 km x 2km polygons using a slightly modified version of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Draft 2010 Vocalization Survey Protocol.
Detection rates of NSO during the 2010 field season. Circles represent detection dog surveys, squares represent vocalization surveys.
Pellets were DNA confirmed to species, whereas vocalization surveys were confirmed by visual identification of the owls. Occupancy models were used to calculate northern spotted owl and barred owl detection probabilities for both survey methods (Figure 1a and 1b).
PUBLICATIONS
Wasser, Samuel K, Lisa S. Hayward, Jennifer Hartman, Rebecca K. Booth, Kristin Broms, Jodi Berg, Elizabeth Seely, Lyle Lewis, Heath Smith. 2012. Using Detection Dogs to Conduct Simultaneous Surveys of Northern Spotted (Strix occidentalis caurina) and Barred Owls (Strix varia)PLoS ONE 7(8): e42892.