Small owl decline in the UK - why should we care?

hello everyone, a small bit of background, i just saw a segment on "the one show" bbc1's nightly topical show... and they had a segment on about how the small owl is in decline in the uk and people are working tirelessly to keep it alive in the uk .....

oh, and at the start of the segment, they explained how the small owl was introduced to the uk about 100 years ago ..

this has got me a but annoyed, as we have tried to introduce a species, its not worked, their dying out, now we are working to keep them, yet other indigenous species in uk are on the decline or not even found in uk any more...

basicly, i wrote this email to their show? its basicly what i woudl post too, so i will just quote it for easyness

this small owl noncence... i have a question on this topic.

im not sure if your program actualy realises how contradictory it has just been, and that you have wasted a whole segment of licience payers money on the small owl topic... heres a quote from your own site... (bbc nature)

"Little owls are the smallest British owl and are closely related to the American burrowing owl. They are an introdu
introduced species to the UK, but have been established for more than 100 years."

Now, this clearly states that this species is not even indigenous to the uk, yet (someones) money is being wasted and your show is wasting program on a species of bird , that is going extinct in this country ... as the bird is NOT indigenous to the uk, my question is ..... why are recorces being wasted on this, sh
shouldnt they be saving the indigenous squirell species or re introducing wolf's into the wild?

could this please be answered? as it seems very stupid to me.

i doubt they will answer, but can anyone here maybe answer why we should even bother trying to save a species that is not indegenious to this in the first place!

I don't know where the BBC does their research, but I know for certain that the Little Owl (Athene noctua) is native to the UK, especially to the Southern part of the UK.

Maybe there have been additional couples added to the native owls in the UK already but the Athene noctua have always been native European owls and are built for the European climate.

If they are leaving the UK all of the sudden, or if their death tolls rise, it would be a good reason for researches to look at external causes... The little owl eats a lot of different bugs and rodents. Poison in it's food chain could kill it of. All of the sudden leaving the UK could indicate we have a harsh winter ahead and it's seeking for warmer places.

I own three Athene noctua myself, I have to say that I haven't seen any behavior in my owls that indicates a harsh winter is coming.

edit/ this is a picture of my Little Owl Rocky

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2697fde555ab.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 16-10-2009 by DrDragonfly]

my scorce was the bbc first saying it at the start of the segement, then went on how they had to save them which just makes no sence to a non indigenious species, and i dont mean that in a hearltess way, just, that if their not indignious then by default, they were not evolved to be here even if it is just a small evolutionary step.


i guess this is/was the bbc's scorce

www.bbc.co.uk...