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Factors Associated With Flammulated Owl And Northern Saw-Whet Owl Occupancy In Southern Idaho, Micah N. Scholer, Matthias Leu, James R. Belthoff

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Spatially explicit models depicting species occupancy offer a useful conservation tool for land managers. Using occurrence data collected in 2009 and 2010 from the Boise National Forest, Idaho, we developed distribution models for Flammulated Owls (Psiloscops flammeolus) and Northern Saw-whet Owls (Aegolius acadicus) to explore associations between habitat factors and owl occupancy. We then spatially applied these models in a Geographic Information System. We considered land cover and topographic variables at three spatial scales: 0.4-km, 1-km, or 3-km-radius plots centered on point-count locations (n  =  150) with resolution of land covers at 30 m. Flammulated …