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The Impact Of Anthropogenic Noise On Northern Saw-Whet Owl (Aegolius Acadius) Hunting Behavior, James Tate Mason
The Impact Of Anthropogenic Noise On Northern Saw-Whet Owl (Aegolius Acadius) Hunting Behavior, James Tate Mason
Boise State University Theses and Dissertations
Anthropogenic noise has increased dramatically worldwide which has negatively impacted wildlife. The effect of noise on acoustically specialized predators has received limited attention. Here I demonstrate that noise generated by a natural gas compressor station degrades the ability of the northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadius) to detect and capture prey in the absence of light. The saw-whet owl is considered an acoustic specialist because it exhibits a high degree of ear asymmetry, an adaptation for precise three-dimensional sound localization in birds. I presented 31 wild-caught saw-whet owls with mice (Mus musculus) inside a flight tent under …