Wildlife officials plan on shooting one species of owl to save another endangered species.
The Fish and Wildlife Service wants to kill 3,603 barred owls in Oregon, Washington and Northern California during the next four years.
“If we don’t manage barred owls, the probability of recovering the spotted owl goes down significantly,” Oregon state supervisor of Fish and Wildlife Paul Henson told The Washington Post .
The barred owls are invading the spotted owl’s territory. Barred owls are more aggressive than their smaller cousins. The spotted owl is an endangered species.
Shooting the birds requires a special permit because the Migratory Bird Treaty Act prohibits killing non-game birds.
The government plan is not without controversy.
"Shooting a few isolated areas of barred owl isn't going to help us as forest managers, nor is it going to help the forest be protected from wildfires, and catastrophic wildfire is one of the big impediments to spotted owl recovery," Tom Partin, the president of a timber industry group, told the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Some animal activists claim that the owls should be left alone. Nature should be allowed to take its course.
Robin Brown is a wildlife biologist who works for the federal government.
“To people who say to me that we should leave those owls alone, my response is that ‘So you’re accepting the extinction of the spotted owl? That’s OK?’” Brown said to the Los Angeles Times .
Image: By D. Gordon E. Robertson, via Wikimedia Commons