fbpx
Wikipedia

Barking owl

The barking owl (Ninox connivens), also known as the winking owl, is a nocturnal bird species native to mainland Australia and parts of New Guinea and the Moluccas. They are a medium-sized brown owl and have a characteristic voice with calls ranging from a barking dog noise to an intense human-like howl.

Barking owl
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Ninox
Species:
N. connivens
Binomial name
Ninox connivens
(Latham, 1801)

Etymology edit

The owl takes its name from its characteristic barking voice. For a short period before 2016, the Red List of Threatened Species referred to this species as the "barking boobook". However, this is not used as a common name in Australia or other English speaking areas in this species' range and has now been corrected to barking owl. The Yanyuwa name for the owl is mulurrku.[3]

Taxonomy edit

The barking owl was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 with the binomial name Falco connivens.[4] Latham commented that the species "Inhabits New Holland, but no history annexed, further than that it has a wonderful faculty of contracting and dilating the iris: and that the native name is Goora-a-Gang."[5] The specific epithet is the Latin connivens 'winking'. [6]

There are five subspecies:[7]

  • N. c. rufostrigata (Gray, GR, 1861) - north Maluku Islands
  • N. b. remigialis Stresemann, 1930 - Kai Islands. Stresemann described it in 1930 from a specimen collected in 1909.[8] Poorly known, it has been recorded twice more in 1998 and 2010.[9]
  • N. c. assimilis Salvadori & D'Albertis, 1875 - east New Guinea, Manam, Karkar and Daru Islands
  • N. c. peninsularis Salvadori, 1876 - north Australia
  • N. c. connivens (Latham, 1801) - southwest, east and southeast Australia

N. b. remigialis was formerly considered a subspecies of the Australian boobook (N. boobook) but was transferred to N. connivens by the International Ornithological Congress in 2022.[10]

Description edit

The barking owl is coloured brown with white spots on its wings and a vertically streaked chest. They have large eyes that have a yellow iris, a discrete facial mask and yellow skin on the feet. Their underparts are brownish-grey and coarsely spotted white with their tail and flight feathers being strongly banded brown and white. They are a robust, medium-sized owl 39–44 cm (15–17 in) long and their wingspan is between 85 and 120 cm (33 and 47 in).[11] They weigh between 380 and 960 g (13 and 34 oz)[12][p20]. Size varies only slightly between the male and female birds with the male barking owl being 8-10 % heavier. They are one of only a handful of owl species exhibiting normal sexual dimorphism. In a banding study conducted in the Pilliga forests of northern New South Wales, males averaged 824 g (29.1 oz) with females averaging 745 g (26.3 oz)[12][p20]. In Australia, the smallest barking owls are found on Cape York Peninsula and the largest in southern Australia.

Distribution and Habitat edit

The barking owl lives in mainland Australia along the eastern and northern coast of the continent and the southwest areas surrounding Perth, Western Australia. Inland they occupy areas near lakes and waterways or other wooded environments. They also live in drier parts of New Guinea and the Moluccas (Halmahera, Morotai, Bacan and Obi). Once widespread, barking owls are now less common in southern mainland Australia.

They choose to live in forests or woodland areas that have large trees for nesting and foliage cover for roosting. They often reside near river, swamp or creek beds as these features often have large trees with hollows required for nesting and the productivity to support sufficient prey. The only detailed studies of barking owl home-ranges have been conducted in southern Australia where the species is declining. In northern Victoria, barking owl pairs were found to average a home-range of 1,424 ha (3,520 acres) with little overlap between pairs. Foraging was concentrated within forested areas of each home range.[13] These results are mirrored in the Pilliga forests of northern NSW although there the home ranges were larger, often up to 2,500 ha (6,200 acres).[14]

Although barking owls are uncommon and sometimes even rare in many suburban areas, they occasionally do get accustomed to humans and even start to nest in streets or near farm-houses.

Behaviour edit

Diet edit

The barking owl has one of the broadest diets of any Australian owl. Barking owls hunt in timbered and open habitats but usually rely on trees as hunting perches. Their diet includes prey taken from the ground, the trees, the surface of waterbodies, and directly from the air. In some locations mammals make up the majority of prey biomass with prey sizes from mice and small carnivorous marsupials up to rabbits and brushtail possums around a kilogram or more in weight. Sugar gliders are a frequent prey item. Bats of all sizes are also commonly taken.

In some areas, bird prey items make a sizeable contribution to the diet. Birds up to the size of sulphur-crested cockatoos (~800 grams) and ducks are taken, but many smaller birds are more commonly taken. One frequent prey item is the tawny frogmouth, a nocturnal bird of Australian forests and woodlands. Insect prey items can dominate the prey item count. Beetles and moths are commonly taken on the wing. A range of other insects are also consumed. Occasionally frogs, reptiles, fish or crustaceans are eaten. In summary, if an animal can be detected by a barking owl and it is of its size or smaller, it can be considered as potential prey.[12][pp8–11, 35-77]

Breeding edit

The breeding season of the barking owl is from July to September in the north of Australia and from August to October in the south.[15] The nest is formed of decayed debris, usually in the large hollow of an old eucalypt near a river.[16] A clutch of 2 or 3 roundish, dull-white eggs, each measuring 48 by 38 mm (1.9 by 1.5 in), is laid and incubated by the female for about 36 days.[15] The young at first are covered in white down and fledge by 5 to 6 weeks.[15]

Voice edit

Most people hear the barking owl rather than see it as it has a loud and explosive voice. The main territorial vocalisation is in the form of a double 'hoot', similar in pattern to the other Australian hawk owls. It sounds like a double dog bark that so closely resembles a small dog that it is difficult to tell the difference. The barking owl name is derived from these calls. Males 'bark' at a lower pitch than females, particularly when a pair perform the barking calls together. Barking calls can be varied in pitch and intensity depending on the purpose of the call. Loud barks are given as territorial calls and can be used in confrontations between pairs in adjacent territories. Lower pitched softer barks are often used around the nest or roost areas by the male to call the female for a meal.

Barking owls also have a range of other vocalisations. These might be described as growls, howls or screams and bleating and twittering. Growls and howls are part of a continuum of calls relating to threats, particularly during nesting. The level of the threat, typically determines the level of the call, with the lowest level being a low pitched and soft growl. This is usually a warning note to the nesting partner. This climbs into a louder and higher pitched series of howls, often made while the owl dives at the intruder. At its most extreme, this might be described as a scream. The screaming of the barking owl is said to sound like a woman or child screaming in pain. Hearings of 'screaming lady,' as it is so nicknamed, are rare and many only hear the sound once in their life even if they live next to a barking owl nest. While screams are usually related to nest defence, some barking owls will make this call in non-nest related situations. Myths surround the events that caused the owl to originally "mimic" the sounds.

Juvenile barking owls have a twittering, insect-like call when begging for food. It is similar to that of other juvenile hawk owls.[17] Female barking owls will often make a gentle bleating sound when receiving food from the male owl. An excited variation of this sound is made during copulation.

 
Barking owl

Conservation status edit

Barking owls are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. However, their conservation status varies from state to state within Australia. For example:

Decline and extent edit

In the State of Victoria, according to Action Statement 116 issued under the FFG Act: "The Barking Owl is the most threatened owl in Victoria. The population has been estimated to be fewer than 50 breeding pairs (Silveira et al. 1997), though work in north-eastern Victoria (Taylor et al. 1999; [13]) suggests that this estimate may have been conservative in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Existing records of Barking Owls on the Atlas of Victorian Wildlife database (NRE 2001) are unlikely to give an accurate representation of the current distribution and abundance of the species. Many of these records are dated, occurring in areas where once-suitable habitat has been lost or degraded. Extensive surveys in Victorian forests have shown the species to be rare, localised and mainly found in north-eastern Victoria (Loyn et al. 2001)."

A similar pattern of decline is evident in NSW with surveys in 1998, 2004 and 2008 showing barking owls to be rare in areas that had been assumed to be strongholds.[23][24][25] Larger population areas have been demonstrated to be isolated from one another.[26]

In south-western Australia a survey (in the late 1990s) of 100 forest sites found no barking owls.[27]

In contrast (as of 2012), barking owl calls are still a common sound in many wooded parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory, although there have been few recent published population studies/surveys in those areas.

Threatening processes edit

According to the Action Statement No. 116 made under the state of Victoria, the primary threat to the barking owl is loss of habitat, particularly the deterioration or loss of the large, hollow-bearing trees on which the species depends for nesting. Hollows suitable for nesting for owls do not form in eucalypts until they are at least 150–200 years old.[28] Similarly, hollows are an important resource for many prey species of the barking owl, e.g. gliders and possums. Such trees are not being regrown rapidly enough to exceed expected losses in the next century. The removal of dead, standing trees and stags for firewood is also likely to remove nesting sites for the species. Native prey species such as arboreal mammals and hollow-nesting birds have declined in some areas through clearing of native vegetation, loss of hollows and the impact of introduced predators. These declines may also have contributed to the decline of the barking owl, although in some areas European rabbits have become a substitute prey, and local populations of the barking owl have become heavily dependent upon them. It is not known how the owls will fare through periods of rabbit decline due to climate fluctuations, control programs or disease such as calicivirus. Where poisons are used to control rabbits, secondary poisoning of owls may be an issue.

Mythology edit

In the early settlement of Australia a screaming noise matching the barking owl's description was credited and told to the settlers by the Indigenous Australians or the Aboriginals as the bunyip. The bunyip was said to be a fearsome creature that inhabited swamps, rivers and billabongs. Bunyips had many different descriptions but most were of an animal of some sort whose favorite food was human women. The cries and noises coming from swamps and creeks at night were not said to be the victims but actually the noise the bunyip made. It is believed by many that the sound is of the nocturnal barking owl and that proves the location, the noises and the rarity of the bunyip cries. It is still not proven though that the barking owl actually started the bunyip story and it could be due to other sources. But it seems that the barking owl will stay as the most likely explanation. Myths surround the events that caused the owl to originally "mimic" the screaming sounds.[29]

References edit

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2016). "Ninox connivens". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22689394A93229752. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22689394A93229752.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. ^ Bradley, John (1992). Yanyuwa Wuka: language from Yanyuwa Country - a Yanyuwa dictionary and cultural resource.
  4. ^ Latham, John (1801). Supplementum indicis ornithologici sive systematis ornithologiae (in Latin). London: Leigh & Sotheby. p. xii.
  5. ^ Latham, John (1801). Supplement II to the General synopsis of birds. London: Leigh & Sotheby. p. 53.
  6. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). "Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird-names". Retrieved 2020-05-31.
  7. ^ "Owls – IOC World Bird List". Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  8. ^ Stresemann, Erwin (1930). "Ninox novaeseelandiae remigialis" (PDF). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 50: 61–62. (PDF) from the original on 2017-09-22. Retrieved 2017-09-22.
  9. ^ Johnstone, R. E.; van Balen, S. (2013). "The birds of the Kai and Tayandu islands, Maluku region, Indonesia". Western Australian Naturalists Club. 29 (1): 11–56. from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  10. ^ "IOC World Bird List 12.1". IOC World Bird List Datasets. doi:10.14344/ioc.ml.12.1. S2CID 246050277.
  11. ^ Higgins, P.J.,ed. (1999). Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 4: Parrots to Dollarbird. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. ISBN 0-19-553071-3
  12. ^ a b c Stanton, M. A. (2011) Barking owl diet in the Pilliga Forests of northern New South Wales. Master of Science Thesis, University of New England https://rune.une.edu.au/web/handle/1959.11/8652
  13. ^ a b Schedvin (2007) Distributional ecology of the barking owl in Victoria, Australia. PhD thesis, Charles Sturt University
  14. ^ Kavanagh, R., & Stanton, M. A. (2009) "Conserving barking owls in the Pilliga Forests." Wingspan 19(2): 28-30. ISSN 1036-7810
  15. ^ a b c Morcombe, Michael (2012) Field Guide to Australian Birds. Pascal Press, Glebe, NSW. Revised edition. ISBN 978174021417-9
  16. ^ Pizzey, Graham and Doyle, Roy. (1980) A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. Collins Publishers, Sydney. ISBN 073222436-5
  17. ^ Hollands (2008), Owls, Frogmouths and Nightjars of Australia, Bloomings Books, ISBN 978-1-876473-64-8
  18. ^ Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria (2005) . Archived from the original on July 18, 2005. Retrieved October 16, 2007.
  19. ^ Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria (2006) . Archived from the original on September 11, 2006. Retrieved October 16, 2007.
  20. ^ Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (2007). Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria - 2007. East Melbourne, Victoria: Department of Sustainability and Environment. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-74208-039-0.
  21. ^ NSW Scientific Committee (1998) "Final Determination of Barking Owl." https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/Topics/Animals-and-plants/Threatened-species/NSW-Threatened-Species-Scientific-Committee/Determinations/Final-determinations/1996-1999/Barking-Owl-Ninox-connivens-vulnerable-species-listing
  22. ^ Garnett S., Szabo J., and Dutson G. (2010) The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010, CSIRO Publishing/Birds Australia. http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6781.htm
  23. ^ Debus, S.J.S. (2001). (PDF). Corella. 25 (1): 5–11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-14.
  24. ^ Parker, D.G.; Webster, R.; Belcher, C.A.; Leslie, D.J. (2007). "A survey of large forest owls in State Forests of south-western New South Wales". Australian Zoologist. 34 (1): 78–84. doi:10.7882/AZ.2007.004.
  25. ^ McGregor, H. (2011). "Large forest owls in the river red gum State Forests of south-western New South Wales – an account of their 2008 status". Australian Zoologist. 35 (3): 864–869. doi:10.7882/AZ.2011.039.
  26. ^ Soderquist, T. (2009). "How extensive is southern Australia's largest barking owl population?". Wingspan. 19 (2): 31–33. ISSN 1036-7810.
  27. ^ Liddelow, G.L., Wheeler, I.B., and Kavanagh, R.P. (2002) "Owls in the southwest forests of Western Australia." In Ecology and Conservation of Owls. (Eds. I. Newton, R. Kavanagh, J. Olsen and I. R. Taylor) pp. 233-241. (CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood, Vic.)
  28. ^ Parnaby, Harry E. (1995). "Hollow arguments". Nature Australia. Australian Museum. 25 (1): 80. ISSN 1324-2598.
  29. ^ "Bunyip:Explanations". Retrieved 2020-05-31.

External links edit

  • Audio of a barking owl resembling a screaming woman recorded by Ed McNabb
  • Owl Pages information
  • Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (includes audio of a barking owl)
  • Photos, audio and video of barking owl from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library
  • Audio of barking owl from Xeno-canto sound archive
  • Audio and photos of barking owl from Graeme Chapman's archive
  • NSW Scientific Committee Final Determination for Barking Owl
  • The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 species listing
  • Barking Owl Diet in the Pilliga Forests of Northern New South Wales

barking, barking, ninox, connivens, also, known, winking, nocturnal, bird, species, native, mainland, australia, parts, guinea, moluccas, they, medium, sized, brown, have, characteristic, voice, with, calls, ranging, from, barking, noise, intense, human, like,. The barking owl Ninox connivens also known as the winking owl is a nocturnal bird species native to mainland Australia and parts of New Guinea and the Moluccas They are a medium sized brown owl and have a characteristic voice with calls ranging from a barking dog noise to an intense human like howl Barking owlConservation statusLeast Concern IUCN 3 1 1 CITES Appendix II CITES 2 Scientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass AvesOrder StrigiformesFamily StrigidaeGenus NinoxSpecies N connivensBinomial nameNinox connivens Latham 1801 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Taxonomy 3 Description 4 Distribution and Habitat 5 Behaviour 5 1 Diet 5 2 Breeding 5 3 Voice 6 Conservation status 6 1 Decline and extent 6 2 Threatening processes 7 Mythology 8 References 9 External linksEtymology editThe owl takes its name from its characteristic barking voice For a short period before 2016 the Red List of Threatened Species referred to this species as the barking boobook However this is not used as a common name in Australia or other English speaking areas in this species range and has now been corrected to barking owl The Yanyuwa name for the owl is mulurrku 3 Taxonomy editThe barking owl was first described by the English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 with the binomial name Falco connivens 4 Latham commented that the species Inhabits New Holland but no history annexed further than that it has a wonderful faculty of contracting and dilating the iris and that the native name is Goora a Gang 5 The specific epithet is the Latin connivens winking 6 There are five subspecies 7 N c rufostrigata Gray GR 1861 north Maluku Islands N b remigialis Stresemann 1930 Kai Islands Stresemann described it in 1930 from a specimen collected in 1909 8 Poorly known it has been recorded twice more in 1998 and 2010 9 N c assimilis Salvadori amp D Albertis 1875 east New Guinea Manam Karkar and Daru Islands N c peninsularis Salvadori 1876 north Australia N c connivens Latham 1801 southwest east and southeast AustraliaN b remigialis was formerly considered a subspecies of the Australian boobook N boobook but was transferred to N connivens by the International Ornithological Congress in 2022 10 Description editThe barking owl is coloured brown with white spots on its wings and a vertically streaked chest They have large eyes that have a yellow iris a discrete facial mask and yellow skin on the feet Their underparts are brownish grey and coarsely spotted white with their tail and flight feathers being strongly banded brown and white They are a robust medium sized owl 39 44 cm 15 17 in long and their wingspan is between 85 and 120 cm 33 and 47 in 11 They weigh between 380 and 960 g 13 and 34 oz 12 p20 Size varies only slightly between the male and female birds with the male barking owl being 8 10 heavier They are one of only a handful of owl species exhibiting normal sexual dimorphism In a banding study conducted in the Pilliga forests of northern New South Wales males averaged 824 g 29 1 oz with females averaging 745 g 26 3 oz 12 p20 In Australia the smallest barking owls are found on Cape York Peninsula and the largest in southern Australia Distribution and Habitat editThe barking owl lives in mainland Australia along the eastern and northern coast of the continent and the southwest areas surrounding Perth Western Australia Inland they occupy areas near lakes and waterways or other wooded environments They also live in drier parts of New Guinea and the Moluccas Halmahera Morotai Bacan and Obi Once widespread barking owls are now less common in southern mainland Australia They choose to live in forests or woodland areas that have large trees for nesting and foliage cover for roosting They often reside near river swamp or creek beds as these features often have large trees with hollows required for nesting and the productivity to support sufficient prey The only detailed studies of barking owl home ranges have been conducted in southern Australia where the species is declining In northern Victoria barking owl pairs were found to average a home range of 1 424 ha 3 520 acres with little overlap between pairs Foraging was concentrated within forested areas of each home range 13 These results are mirrored in the Pilliga forests of northern NSW although there the home ranges were larger often up to 2 500 ha 6 200 acres 14 Although barking owls are uncommon and sometimes even rare in many suburban areas they occasionally do get accustomed to humans and even start to nest in streets or near farm houses Behaviour editDiet edit The barking owl has one of the broadest diets of any Australian owl Barking owls hunt in timbered and open habitats but usually rely on trees as hunting perches Their diet includes prey taken from the ground the trees the surface of waterbodies and directly from the air In some locations mammals make up the majority of prey biomass with prey sizes from mice and small carnivorous marsupials up to rabbits and brushtail possums around a kilogram or more in weight Sugar gliders are a frequent prey item Bats of all sizes are also commonly taken In some areas bird prey items make a sizeable contribution to the diet Birds up to the size of sulphur crested cockatoos 800 grams and ducks are taken but many smaller birds are more commonly taken One frequent prey item is the tawny frogmouth a nocturnal bird of Australian forests and woodlands Insect prey items can dominate the prey item count Beetles and moths are commonly taken on the wing A range of other insects are also consumed Occasionally frogs reptiles fish or crustaceans are eaten In summary if an animal can be detected by a barking owl and it is of its size or smaller it can be considered as potential prey 12 pp8 11 35 77 Breeding edit The breeding season of the barking owl is from July to September in the north of Australia and from August to October in the south 15 The nest is formed of decayed debris usually in the large hollow of an old eucalypt near a river 16 A clutch of 2 or 3 roundish dull white eggs each measuring 48 by 38 mm 1 9 by 1 5 in is laid and incubated by the female for about 36 days 15 The young at first are covered in white down and fledge by 5 to 6 weeks 15 Voice edit Most people hear the barking owl rather than see it as it has a loud and explosive voice The main territorial vocalisation is in the form of a double hoot similar in pattern to the other Australian hawk owls It sounds like a double dog bark that so closely resembles a small dog that it is difficult to tell the difference The barking owl name is derived from these calls Males bark at a lower pitch than females particularly when a pair perform the barking calls together Barking calls can be varied in pitch and intensity depending on the purpose of the call Loud barks are given as territorial calls and can be used in confrontations between pairs in adjacent territories Lower pitched softer barks are often used around the nest or roost areas by the male to call the female for a meal Barking owls also have a range of other vocalisations These might be described as growls howls or screams and bleating and twittering Growls and howls are part of a continuum of calls relating to threats particularly during nesting The level of the threat typically determines the level of the call with the lowest level being a low pitched and soft growl This is usually a warning note to the nesting partner This climbs into a louder and higher pitched series of howls often made while the owl dives at the intruder At its most extreme this might be described as a scream The screaming of the barking owl is said to sound like a woman or child screaming in pain Hearings of screaming lady as it is so nicknamed are rare and many only hear the sound once in their life even if they live next to a barking owl nest While screams are usually related to nest defence some barking owls will make this call in non nest related situations Myths surround the events that caused the owl to originally mimic the sounds Juvenile barking owls have a twittering insect like call when begging for food It is similar to that of other juvenile hawk owls 17 Female barking owls will often make a gentle bleating sound when receiving food from the male owl An excited variation of this sound is made during copulation nbsp Barking owlConservation status editBarking owls are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 However their conservation status varies from state to state within Australia For example The barking owl is listed as Threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 18 Under this Act an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared 19 On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria the barking owl is listed as endangered 20 The barking owl was listed as Vulnerable under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 21 This listing was transferred to the equivalent schedules under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 NSW from August 2017 The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 22 lists the barking owl southern sub species as near threatened Decline and extent edit In the State of Victoria according to Action Statement 116 issued under the FFG Act The Barking Owl is the most threatened owl in Victoria The population has been estimated to be fewer than 50 breeding pairs Silveira et al 1997 though work in north eastern Victoria Taylor et al 1999 13 suggests that this estimate may have been conservative in the late 1990s and early 2000s Existing records of Barking Owls on the Atlas of Victorian Wildlife database NRE 2001 are unlikely to give an accurate representation of the current distribution and abundance of the species Many of these records are dated occurring in areas where once suitable habitat has been lost or degraded Extensive surveys in Victorian forests have shown the species to be rare localised and mainly found in north eastern Victoria Loyn et al 2001 A similar pattern of decline is evident in NSW with surveys in 1998 2004 and 2008 showing barking owls to be rare in areas that had been assumed to be strongholds 23 24 25 Larger population areas have been demonstrated to be isolated from one another 26 In south western Australia a survey in the late 1990s of 100 forest sites found no barking owls 27 In contrast as of 2012 barking owl calls are still a common sound in many wooded parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory although there have been few recent published population studies surveys in those areas Threatening processes edit According to the Action Statement No 116 made under the state of Victoria the primary threat to the barking owl is loss of habitat particularly the deterioration or loss of the large hollow bearing trees on which the species depends for nesting Hollows suitable for nesting for owls do not form in eucalypts until they are at least 150 200 years old 28 Similarly hollows are an important resource for many prey species of the barking owl e g gliders and possums Such trees are not being regrown rapidly enough to exceed expected losses in the next century The removal of dead standing trees and stags for firewood is also likely to remove nesting sites for the species Native prey species such as arboreal mammals and hollow nesting birds have declined in some areas through clearing of native vegetation loss of hollows and the impact of introduced predators These declines may also have contributed to the decline of the barking owl although in some areas European rabbits have become a substitute prey and local populations of the barking owl have become heavily dependent upon them It is not known how the owls will fare through periods of rabbit decline due to climate fluctuations control programs or disease such as calicivirus Where poisons are used to control rabbits secondary poisoning of owls may be an issue Mythology editIn the early settlement of Australia a screaming noise matching the barking owl s description was credited and told to the settlers by the Indigenous Australians or the Aboriginals as the bunyip The bunyip was said to be a fearsome creature that inhabited swamps rivers and billabongs Bunyips had many different descriptions but most were of an animal of some sort whose favorite food was human women The cries and noises coming from swamps and creeks at night were not said to be the victims but actually the noise the bunyip made It is believed by many that the sound is of the nocturnal barking owl and that proves the location the noises and the rarity of the bunyip cries It is still not proven though that the barking owl actually started the bunyip story and it could be due to other sources But it seems that the barking owl will stay as the most likely explanation Myths surround the events that caused the owl to originally mimic the screaming sounds 29 References edit BirdLife International 2016 Ninox connivens IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016 e T22689394A93229752 doi 10 2305 IUCN UK 2016 3 RLTS T22689394A93229752 en Retrieved 12 November 2021 Appendices CITES cites org Retrieved 2022 01 14 Bradley John 1992 Yanyuwa Wuka language from Yanyuwa Country a Yanyuwa dictionary and cultural resource Latham John 1801 Supplementum indicis ornithologici sive systematis ornithologiae in Latin London Leigh amp Sotheby p xii Latham John 1801 Supplement II to the General synopsis of birds London Leigh amp Sotheby p 53 Jobling James A 2010 Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird names Retrieved 2020 05 31 Owls IOC World Bird List Retrieved 2022 05 09 Stresemann Erwin 1930 Ninox novaeseelandiae remigialis PDF Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club 50 61 62 Archived PDF from the original on 2017 09 22 Retrieved 2017 09 22 Johnstone R E van Balen S 2013 The birds of the Kai and Tayandu islands Maluku region Indonesia Western Australian Naturalists Club 29 1 11 56 Archived from the original on 2021 12 21 Retrieved 2019 01 27 IOC World Bird List 12 1 IOC World Bird List Datasets doi 10 14344 ioc ml 12 1 S2CID 246050277 Higgins P J ed 1999 Handbook of Australian New Zealand and Antarctic Birds Volume 4 Parrots to Dollarbird Oxford University Press Melbourne ISBN 0 19 553071 3 a b c Stanton M A 2011 Barking owl diet in the Pilliga Forests of northern New South Wales Master of Science Thesis University of New England https rune une edu au web handle 1959 11 8652 a b Schedvin 2007 Distributional ecology of the barking owl in Victoria Australia PhD thesis Charles Sturt University Kavanagh R amp Stanton M A 2009 Conserving barking owls in the Pilliga Forests Wingspan 19 2 28 30 ISSN 1036 7810 a b c Morcombe Michael 2012 Field Guide to Australian Birds Pascal Press Glebe NSW Revised edition ISBN 978174021417 9 Pizzey Graham and Doyle Roy 1980 A Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Collins Publishers Sydney ISBN 073222436 5 Hollands 2008 Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars of Australia Bloomings Books ISBN 978 1 876473 64 8 Department of Sustainability and Environment Victoria 2005 Listed Items Archived from the original on July 18 2005 Retrieved October 16 2007 Department of Sustainability and Environment Victoria 2006 Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Action Statement Index by Category and Scientific Name Archived from the original on September 11 2006 Retrieved October 16 2007 Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment 2007 Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria 2007 East Melbourne Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment p 15 ISBN 978 1 74208 039 0 NSW Scientific Committee 1998 Final Determination of Barking Owl https www environment nsw gov au Topics Animals and plants Threatened species NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee Determinations Final determinations 1996 1999 Barking Owl Ninox connivens vulnerable species listing Garnett S Szabo J and Dutson G 2010 The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 CSIRO Publishing Birds Australia http www publish csiro au pid 6781 htm Debus S J S 2001 Surveys of the barking owl and masked owl on the north west slopes of New South Wales PDF Corella 25 1 5 11 Archived from the original PDF on 2016 03 14 Parker D G Webster R Belcher C A Leslie D J 2007 A survey of large forest owls in State Forests of south western New South Wales Australian Zoologist 34 1 78 84 doi 10 7882 AZ 2007 004 McGregor H 2011 Large forest owls in the river red gum State Forests of south western New South Wales an account of their 2008 status Australian Zoologist 35 3 864 869 doi 10 7882 AZ 2011 039 Soderquist T 2009 How extensive is southern Australia s largest barking owl population Wingspan 19 2 31 33 ISSN 1036 7810 Liddelow G L Wheeler I B and Kavanagh R P 2002 Owls in the southwest forests of Western Australia In Ecology and Conservation of Owls Eds I Newton R Kavanagh J Olsen and I R Taylor pp 233 241 CSIRO Publishing Collingwood Vic Parnaby Harry E 1995 Hollow arguments Nature Australia Australian Museum 25 1 80 ISSN 1324 2598 Bunyip Explanations Retrieved 2020 05 31 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ninox connivens nbsp Wikispecies has information related to Ninox connivens Audio of a barking owl resembling a screaming woman recorded by Ed McNabb Owl Pages information Queensland Environmental Protection Agency includes audio of a barking owl Photos audio and video of barking owl from Cornell Lab of Ornithology s Macaulay Library Audio of barking owl from Xeno canto sound archive Audio and photos of barking owl from Graeme Chapman s archive NSW Scientific Committee Final Determination for Barking Owl The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 species listing Barking Owl Diet in the Pilliga Forests of Northern New South Wales Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Barking owl amp oldid 1170974561, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.