BirdLife Cyprus, the municipality of Ypsonas and Ypsonas-Lofou hunting clubs installed artificial nests in areas of Ypsonas, BirdLife said in a Facebook post on Monday.
The barn owl can be “a farmer’s best partner” as it controls rodent populations, BirdLife said.
“The Barn Owl Tyto alba is an incredible nocturnal bird of prey who with its excellent night vision, amazing hearing and silent flight hunts and eats up to 6000 rodents per year,” BirdLife says in its website.
In December 2018, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry Department, Wildlife Department, Veterinary Services officials and BirdLife Cyprus agreed that using barn owls will have positive consequences for pest control.
The method aims to reduce certain rodent populations, such as weasels, which will also lead to a decrease in the use of rodenticides as well as an increase in barn owl populations.
In 2015, the NGO started a pilot project for using Barn Owls as pest control agents in farming as an alternative to using rodenticides.
According to BirdLife one of the basic requirements for the success of the project is the elimination of rodenticides from farming areas as barn owls can consume poisoned rodents and die of poisoning themselves.
Read more:
https://in-cyprus.com/15-artificial-nests-for-barn-owls-at-nicosia-airport/
