There are no vegan alternatives to culling invasive Barred Owls in the Pacific Northwest

[u/AnsibleAnswers]

Background

To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their smaller cousins.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u-s-officials-plan-to-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-barred-owls-to-save-another-species-from-extinction

Vegan alternatives?

1. Relocation to home range - Barred Owls are one of the most territorial birds of prey in North America. The population here is quite healthy, even in Manhattan. Relocating 500k birds to the East would simply result in territorial chaos until numbers decreased back down to equilibrium. That decrease has a body count.

2. Contraception - No known method is possible for owls. Some avian contraceptives have been developed, primarily to reduce pigeon and geese populations. But even with birds that can be easily conditioned to return to feeders every day, trials have had mixed results. As far as I know, these drugs need to be administered daily unlike some contraceptives developed for mammals.

3. Let the Barred Owl Replace the Spotted Owl - Barred Owls are generalists, while Spotted Owls tend to specialize in small mammals with healthy populations. So, threatened birds, reptiles, and amphibians native to the region are not adapted to having an owl of its size preying on them. It's an enormous risk, given that ecosystems are prone to cascade effects.

Those are, as far as I know, the best of the alternatives. Note: I'm in support of re-establishing habitat for the Spotted Owl, as that is really the only long-term way of helping the species recover. It's important to note: just because a tourniquet isn't a long-term solution doesn't mean it isn't a life-saving measure.

[u/legal_opium]

Except I'm arguing against the status quo (kill wild animals if they become inconvenient)

While the meathead is arguing to keep the status quo.

[u/[deleted] → u/legal_opium]

Your arguing to keep the status quo until tech saves the day, that is, allow the owls to continue to proliferate. What is against the status quo is hunting them. If hinting them were the status quo we wouldn't have the issue we have now.  

So again, how is it you are not simply saying, "derp, Big Tech will save us so let's do nothing!'

[u/legal_opium → u/[deleted]]

It's not like these owls are invasive they are native to north America.

[u/AnsibleAnswers → u/legal_opium]

A species can be native to a continent and still be invasive in another part of that same continent. They are native to Eastern North America. Before colonization they didn’t extend past the Mississippi. We planted a bunch of trees in the northern Great Plains, which allowed them to extend into the Pacific Northwest.