The long-eared owl (Asio otus), also known as the northern long-eared owl or, more informally, as the lesser horned owl or cat owl, is a medium-sized species of owl with an extensive breeding range. The genus name, Asio, is Latin for "horned owl", and the specific epithet, otus, is derived from Greek and refers to a small eared owl. The species breeds in Europe and the Palearctic, as well as in North America. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, of the family Strigidae, which contains most extant species of owl. This owl prefers semi-open habitats, particularly woodland edge, as they to roost and nest within dense stands of wood but prefer to hunt over open ground. The long-eared owl is a specialized predator, focusing its diet on small rodents, especially voles. Under some circumstances, such as population cycles of their regular prey, arid or insular regional habitats or urbanization, this species can adapt to a diversity of prey, including birds and insects. The long-eared owl utilizes nests built by other animals, in particular by corvids. Breeding success in this species is correlated with prey populations and predation risks. Unlike many owls, long-eared owls are not strongly territorial or sedentary. They are partially migratory and sometimes characterized as "nomadic". Another characteristic of this species is its partiality for regular roosts shared by a number of long-eared owls at once. The long-eared owl is one of the most widely distributed and most numerous owl species in the world, and due to its very broad range and numbers it is considered a least concern species by the IUCN. Nonetheless, strong declines have been detected for this owl in several parts of its range.
Taxonomy The long-eared owl was described by Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Strix otus. It is now assigned to the genus Asio that was introduced by Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. There are eight known species worldwide in the genus Asio, also referred to as eared owls. Despite similarities and being considered as in the same genus, it was found in a study utilizing electrophoresis that the genetic distance between long-eared owls and short-eared owls was unusually large for species within the same genera. Notwithstanding fossil records of Asio species showing their presence during prehistory in locations like Kansas and Idaho (Asio brevipes) and California (Asio priscus), the exact area of evolutionary origin of the long-eared owl is unknown and unlikely to ever be known. At least three modern species represent related derivations, possibly with long-eared owls as the paraspecies or as part of a species complex that potentially bears a basal common ancestor. In all three cases, the related owls are obviously more tropical in distribution and adapted to more humid conditions, with darker plumage, and larger bodies with apparently stronger feet and more overdeveloped talons, possibly exploiting a relatively unoccupied ecological niche against competing owls. One of these three is the Stygian owl, which is the darkest derivation of all and readily known to be distinct for some time. The other two slightly larger, tropical species, possibly housed in a species complex with the long-eared owl, were at one time considered to be part of the long-eared owl species. One of these is the Madagascar owl (Asio madagascariensis), obviously endemic to the island of its name, while the other is the Abyssinian owl (Asio abyssinicus), native to east Africa, especially in the northern area such as Ethiopia. While the marsh owl of Africa is outwardly very similar to and likely closely related to the short-eared owl, the striped owl (Asio clamator) is somewhat of an outlier among living Asio species and of mysterious origin. Despite being genetically related to the other living Asio species, it does not appear to be a close cousin. Studies of the mitochondrial genome found that the Asio genus, and consequently the long-eared owl, diverged most recently among living owl groups from the Otus or scops owl genus, with a more distant branch division from the Strix genus. A study of the genetic homogeny of long-eared owls in a single roost site was shown to be slightly higher than between different roosts. However, this homogeny is relatively low for a communal roosting bird in general.
Subspecies Four subspecies of the long-eared owl are recognised:
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
