Ashy Faced Owl Facts

The endangered status of this owl means that very little is known of its habits in the wild. Vocalisation, breeding and status are only guessed at. It may well be that this owl and the other three species endemic to Hispaniola and Tortuga may well disappear entirely before studies can be carried out.

The only zoo in the Dominican Republic, Zoodom, has had some success in breeding the Ashy-Faced Owl from wild injured stock but has little funds to carry out a sensible conservation programme.

At present all of this species of owl to be found outside of the Caribbean are descendants of only six wild owls brought to Europe in the 1960s. In 1999 the Society for the Conservation and Study of Owls, S.C.R.O., started the Dominican Republic Owl Conservation Project along with the government. They didn’t start a project in the Amazon or in the Congo where one can still find fragments of untouched wilderness.

They started where they were confronted by the highest percentage of difficulties, saving Owls on a densely populated island. This strategy, if successful, may prove that man can be part of the solution to our previous, widespread damage to our planet.

Nobody can guarantee that we will have enough wilderness left in a hundred or even fifty years to provide adequate space for all other life forms besides humans on our planet.

We can’t have a herd of elephants rambling about in a densely populated area but we can tolerate certain Owl species living among us. Perhaps a way forward for these wonderful creatures.