Northern Spotted Owl

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The ecology of the Pacific Northwest is very interesting. Animals and plants are the reason why it is how it is today. An animal in the Pacific Northwest ecology is the Northern Spotted Owl. This owl is an endangered animal and is one of three subspecies of spotted owls.It is dark to chestnut brown in color with white, round spots all around its neck, back, head, and under parts. Their natural habitats are old-growth forests and these can be found in places that range from northern California, all the way to British Columbia, Canada. There are only around 2360 Northern Spotted Owls left in the wild. The owls do not migrate or move from their territories unless there is a disturbance in their habitat. An example of a disturbance would be if a lumber company wanted to tear down the forests for the wood.The owls would be forced to leave because those trees are not only home to the owls, but they are also home to the owl’s food source. The Northern Spotted Owls are very territorial. They have large areas of the territory. They mostly feed on small rodents. The trees for their area must have holes, for nesting, and the trees must be high but open enough to fly through. Although, a lot of the forests are being cut down by timber companies. This has been the main reason for the owl’s endangerment. The United States government declared the Northern Spotted Owl endangered in the year of 1990. This made it illegal to log in forests inhabited by the Northern Spotted Owl or thought to be inhabited. That created a debate between loggers and the United States government. This debate was about how the loggers needed the cut down trees to keep their jobs and how the United States government didn’t want to lose another species due to habitat destruction. Scientists had said that if they cut down all of the forest, it would take them 40 to 100 years just to rebuild how it

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