ATHENS, Greece (AP) — It soars over the borders and divisions of the war-torn Middle East, bringing Arab and Israeli academics together. An unlikely symbol of cooperation, the barn owl is now getting global attention. Experts from 12 countries gathered in Greece last week to discuss an effort to help this remarkable predator that began decades ago as an unlikely Israeli-Jordanian collaboration.
The moon-faced, shoebox-sized owl is a ruthless pest controller, protecting crops from rodents and other nuisances. “A pair of barn owls eats between 2,000 and 6,000 rodents every year, allowing farmers to stop using pesticides,” says Yossi Leshem, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology. But as modern building techniques eliminate the nooks and crannies that shelter their nests, their populations have fallen.
Conservation initiatives aim to protect the barn owl from urban encroachment by creating networks of artificial nests, typically modified plywood boxes, and by cutting down on the use of pesticides and rodenticides that can poison predatory birds. Leshem pioneered the nesting project in the early 1980s on a community farm. “From 14 nesting boxes in one kibbutz, it grew into a national project with 5,000 boxes in Israel and partnerships in Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus and Morocco,” he says.
In 2002, Leshem partnered with retired Gen. Mansour Abu Rashid, to bring the boxes to Jordan. Abu Rashid helped extend the project’s tracking system to Jordan, .
