Can we learn to share El Paso with burrowing owls?
Here in the Chihuahuan Desert life is not always what it seems. Take a burrow in the sandy soil for example, ever wonder what creatures live inside? One day you decide to investigate a little hole you have found and suddenly jump back when you hear the sound of a rattlesnake. But low and behold after a long period of patient observation there is no rattlesnake to be seen. Days later you return to the hole and once again are startled by a rattling sound. You look all around, but still can’t find the snake. Where is it? As it turns out inside the hole are some juvenile burrowing owls making rattlesnake-like buzz sounds and successfully scaring most potential enemies away, including you! Four hundred years after the Juan de Oate expedition celebrated the first Thanksgiving here in El Paso, one of our desert’s long time residents, the burrowing owl, has somehow found a way to survive. Burrowing owls help to keep in check desert insects, rodents and small mammal populations while increasing
