[music]
- WOMAN: Shopping strips, and homes, and urban expansion.
It's growing just like every other place in Sun Belt areas.
- NARRATOR: Urban El Paso is expanding.
- WOMAN: There's about 700,000 people in the county
and we are adjacent to Mexico, Juarez, where there's
at least two million people.
[music]
- NARRATOR: But as more people make this region home,
some other desert-dwellers are being displaced.
Among them are burrowing owls.
- WOMAN: That other one is still in the tree.
- NARRATOR: Fortunately, biologist, Lois Balin,
is looking out for the owls.
- LOIS: They are endangered in several other states,
but not in Texas.
Right now they're a species of concern here,
they're endangered in Canada and a threatened species in Mexico,
so it would be good to have a good plan for them before
these owls become threatened or even rare.
[owl calls]
- NARRATOR: Burrowing owls don't live like most owls.
- LOIS: These are terrestrial owls that live underground.
- NARRATOR: These birds also borrow their burrows.
- LOIS: They need natural areas where there are other animals,
like badgers or ground squirrels,
rock squirrels, or prairie dogs.
With the desert being encroached by urbanization,
they're just losing more and more of their natural habitat.
- NARRATOR: The good news is these owls can take advantage
of unnatural habitat.
- LOIS: That means I'm really not very happy that you're here.
- NARRATOR: Along the Mexican border, at a natural area
in Eastern El Paso, Lois has been building
artificial burrows for the owls since 2006.
- LOIS: Here are some supplies you're going to need
to make a burrowing owl nest box.
Uh, the dog is optional.
Get out of here!
[music]
A reasonable sized nest box, probably 16 inches high,
and then we have pipes coming out, PVC pipes.
That's their burrow.
[pen scratching paper]
The whole idea here is designing the perfect, hopefully,
artificial nest site for the owls that will
enhance their success.
All that has to be underground.
[music]
- VOLUNTEER: There you go....
- LOIS: Makes it a lot faster when you have help.
- VOLUNTEER: Okay, you got it there?
[music]
- NARRATOR: With her volunteer crews, Lois has installed
16 artificial burrows here.
And building the burrows has presented an opportunity to
study the owls more closely.
- So this is the camera right here, so right under
this bucket is the nest box.
The rocks discourage anybody from their curiosity,
in case the signs aren't enough.
- NARRATOR: Two owl homes have been fitted with
video surveillance systems.
- It's just a little camera.
Three nice large solar panels providing the energy
and this little gadget here is called the solar charge
controller.
And this is the DVR that's going to record all the data.
Having the cameras underground gives biologists
a lot of new tools.
It's pretty awesome.
- NARRATOR: Maybe the most impressive gadget transmits
the video wirelessly, so Lois can check on the birds
without disturbance or a drive across town.
[music]
- Okay, look at this here.
These are newly hatched.
And they're just little white powder puffs.
I'd say one day old.
- NARRATOR: Not surprisingly, the cameras are revealing much
about the hidden lives of burrowing owls.
- Number of eggs laid, number of nestlings,
their behavior or their prey items.
This one looks like it might be foraging.
Another mouse.
They have a pretty wide variety of diet,
but the main staple is rodents.
They also eat birds, frogs, and lizards, and even a snake.
- NARRATOR: Lois is also learning how the owls can
become prey themselves.
- LOIS: I have had coach whips go into the burrows.
But fortunately the owls were smart enough not to go
anywhere near that snake.
I went to check a nest box which at one point had 8 eggs
in it, and when I checked it there were no eggs
and there was a snakeskin left behind.
Probably a gopher snake ate all the eggs and then decided
that was a good place to shed.
But the skunk discovery is probably the most recent,
rather astonishing discovery.
Skunks are going into the burrows and occupying them,
and in some cases preying on the owls themselves.
[owl screech]
It was a shocking discovery to learn that a striped skunk
would eat a burrowing owl, but this has happened
two or three times now.
So this is another aspect to the design of the burrows.
Now I have to address, 'how do I exclude skunks?'
We'll find something.
[music]
- NARRATOR: Information is gathered from cameras
underground with the owls, as well as from cameras
outside both artificial and natural burrows.
But some kinds of knowledge can only come from
hands-on research.
- Today we are going to try to capture some owls
and band them.
- NARRATOR: Among other things, leg bands can reveal if the
same owls return each year and how long they live.
- I'd like to capture these guys because I know
they're both adults.
There's a much higher rate of survival if they've
made it to adulthood.
Okay.
- NARRATOR: Traps are placed over burrow exits and checked
throughout the morning.
- LOIS: It's just sort of random when you're
going to catch them.
There have been days I've captured nothing,
so any capture is a good one.
[music, truck on gravel]
We know that they hunt at night, but they also hunt
during the day.
I also know from my videotape that they nap.
So I think they're more nappers.
[music]
The owls spend an awful lot of time preening
and preening each other.
Lots of wing stretching and leg stretching
and bobbing up and down when they sense danger.
And their antics are just adorable.
[music]
- NARRATOR: Hours after being set, the traps remain empty.
- LOIS: No owls.
They took the morning off.
- NARRATOR: But before the day is done...
- LOIS: We got one.
- NARRATOR: ...Success!
- Do you hear that bill clattering?
Not a happy camper.
So we'll just take the whole trap back.
None of them are happy to be trapped, but I try to be
as quick as I can.
When you see them at a distance they look large
and they're all puffed up, and then when you get them
in your hand you see how tiny they are.
This is not always graceful.
I cover them first.
And now he won't be afraid.
Are there migrating owls just migrating through?
Are there owls that come here just to breed?
With an ID number, I can determine that information.
So this fellow is 74.
131.2.
165 on the wing.
This one is 76.
- NARRATOR: Lois collects her data quickly...
- This bird's ready to go.
- NARRATOR: ...and the owl is soon on its way.
[owl screech]
- There, look at that.
[music]
- NARRATOR: The longer this research continues,
the more it reveals about the secret lives of burrowing owls.
But these owls are already increasing awareness about
this urban desert habitat, and the web of interconnected
creatures that call it home.
- LOIS: It's really important in a desert environment
that there are these oases for wildlife.
[birds call]
Part of our mission is to get people outside enjoying
nature, so the owl is like a representative.
Some biologists call them Hollywood animals.
This is a very charismatic animal that people
are very attracted to.
[owl calls]
People can see an owl up close, then they get appreciation
for the owls and the habitat.
- NARRATOR: While further research may be the best way
to ensure these owls will always have a place
to call home...
- This bird has come back two years in a row.
- NARRATOR: ...some extra care and compassion...
- Good information.
- NARRATOR: ...can't hurt.
- Okay, baby. Okay.
It's very difficult to work with any animal
and not become attached to them, even though there is really
no relationship with the owls.
Just watching them grow up and watching their behavior
and their antics, definitely I'm very fond of them.
[music]
- NARRATOR: This project was funded in part by
Wildlife Restoration Funds.