To save spotted owls, US officials plan to kill hundreds of thousands of another owl species

To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, wildlife officials in the US are planning to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests. The plan involves killing almost half a million barred owls that are crowding out their cousins. The strategy is aimed at propping up declining spotted owl populations in Oregon, Washington state, and California. Barred owls from the eastern US have encroached into the West Coast territory of northern spotted owls and California spotted owls, and the smaller spotted owls have been unable to compete. The plan has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists, with some reluctantly accepting it and others opposing it. The shootings, which involve luring the owls using recorded calls and shooting them with shotguns, would likely begin next spring.