Food of the Barn Owl Tyto alba in the Yahmool Area, Northern Syria

Authors : Adwan Hussien SHEHAB, Safwan Mohamed AL CHARABI

Pages : 175-179

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Publication Date : 0000-00-00

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Pellets regurgitated by the barn owl insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Tyto alba); were collected in July 2000 from Yahmool Agricultural research station, 50 km north of Aleppo. Pellet analysis yielded 657 individual prey representing 7 species of rodents, 2 shrews, 1 bird, an unidentified lizard and at least 7 species of insects. By frequency, rodents constituted 84.9% of the prey items, shrews 9.6%, birds 1.5%, insects 3.7% and lizards 0.3%. The social vole, Microtus socials, was the main food of the barn owl, constituting 59.5% of prey items. Pellets` content indicated that the barn owl consumes 1 to 5 prey per day insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(average 2.53 ± 1.03); depending on availability and the size of prey species.
Keywords : Barn owl, Pellets, rodents, small mammals, Syria, Tyto alba