Owls get taste for foreign invader

Ireland’s declining native barn owl population could be given a boost by a foreign shrew that has managed to get into the country.

The greater white-toothed shrew may be having a clearly negative impact on the native woodmouse and the pygmy shrew by aggressively taking over their habitats, but it is proving to be a new source of food for the endangered barn owl.

It is estimated there are now only 400 to 800 pairs of barn owls in the country, as they are under threat from the widespread use of rat poison, the loss of nesting sites in barns and old churches, drownings in farm troughs, and loss of food sources because of improved grain and food storage facilities on farms.