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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Thanks for breaking this down. I was in a rush when I posted the article this morning. I thought it was a good one and wanted to share.
I like your thought of the owls hybridizing and Spotted Owls living on that way. It’s not ideal, but none of the options are. I just wonder if the hybrids are able to reproduce? I seem to recall hearing that some animal hybrids are sterile, but maybe I’m misremembering.
I also think that since this was set in motion by humans changing owl habitat so long ago (early 1900s!) that we can’t really know all the impacts that the Barred Owls have had on their new homes. You can’t really untangle it. And killing that large of a population is sure to have repercussions on other aspects of the environment than just saving Spotted Owls. We also can’t know if Barred Owls would have expanded their range without human intervention, and if they had then they are just a more successful species than Spotted Owls and it is just survival of the fittest. That is hard to be ok with, but it is how nature works.
Anyway, lots to think about in this article. But also some great pictures.
Looking it up quick, successful hybridization, meaning the offspring can reproduce, seems very common in birds, with somewhere 10-20% of species being able to do it. I found one old study from the 70s putting mammals at 6% and birds for 10%.
I know animals like mules are typically infertile, and the fancy hybrids like zonkeys and ligers/tions are also. It seems to be the males of these hybrids that are infertile, females seem fine.
Sparred Owls, the hybrids of the Spotted/Barred pairings are usually killed when they do these programs, so I dont know how much they've actually been studied. They seem to have a mix of both physical attributes like coloration, a mix of spots and stripes, and also a mixed of behavior and calls.
I feel bad the headline is going to get not many people to click on it here, but that's the actual title of the article... I do think this is an important issue now and is only going to become more important in the future when the same is going to happen to other species if we can't pull the environment back and this starts to happen with more and more species.
The biggest downside to the hybrids will be if the hybrids are more successful than the actual Spotted Owls, if we magically come up with a solution/breeding program/environmental fix/genetic miracle, etc., how do we ensure we're "bringing back" the actual Spotted Owl.
Yes, the article title is unfortunate. I have changed the post title.