Animal adventures in Sisters

Last month marked the first monthly cooperative program offered by the High Desert Museum (HDM) and Deschutes Public Library System.

The presentation was on nocturnal animals, focusing on bats and owls. To begin the program, Alyisa Wolf, assistant curator of wildlife for HDM, removed a lively adult barred owl from its carrying case and gave each of the children and parents in attendance a close-up look at this controversial nocturnal owl.

The barred owl is an alien species that is creating great concern within the circle of scientists working with our indigenous northern spotted owl.

The now-infamous barred owl's presence in the Northwest is causing serious biological and genetic problems for native northern spotted owls throughout their home range. Barred owls have traveled from eastern North America to western North America via thousands of Canadian and U.S. logging clearcuts, feeding on the abundant terrestrial rodents populating the unnatural habitat.

Unlike the northern spotted owls that are specialists, utilizing arboreal voles for food, barred owls are generalists and can get by on just about any rodent they catch and consume.

Further, barred owls are genetically so close to spotted owls they can interbreed, giving rise to "sparred owls," which threaten the gene pool of northern spotted owls.

To remove this threat, U.S. Fish and Wildlife has been using what they term "lethal removal" of the alien barred owls. However, they've decided to live-capture the owls and offer them to zoos and museums as "educational birds," which have been put to work in libraries, museums and school educational programs.

The program smoothly shifted from owls (as Wolf carefully and quietly placed the barred owl back in its carrying case) to bats, as Glynis Bawden presented the children with construction materials to make their own paper-and-bead bats. At that time, the lesson opened the door to bats in general, what they are, what they do - and how. After the talks each child went home with a model bat to share with parents, siblings, and friends.