Home range and habitat selection in the Pygmy Owl Glaucidium passerinum

Abstract

Home range and habitat selection of eight adult Pygmy Owls Glaucidium passerinum (six males and two females) were assessed by radio-tracking in a fragmented forest-farmland landscape in southeastern Norway during January-September 1993, when small mammal populations were in their low phase. Minimum convex polygon home range size based on one location per day ranged 0.4-6 .0 km2', with a median of 2.3 km2. The habitat composition in the Pygmy Owls' home ranges differed from that in the study area. In this landscape scale habitat selection, mature forest ranked highest, followed by young thinning stands, edge between forest and open areas, clear-cut areas, advanced thinning stands, and finally agricultural crop land where the Pygmy Owls were never observed. The Pygmy Owls' habitat use differed from random use of available habitats within the home range. In this home range scale habitat selection, edge between forest and open areas ranked highest, followed by mature forest, advanced thinning stands, young thinning stands, clear-cut areas and agricultural crop land . Forestry maybe harmful to Pygmy Owl populations by harvesting the old forest, but also beneficial by creating more edges between the old forest and stands of younger successional stages.