Beetle bait.Burrowing owls bur·row·ing owl n. A small, long-legged owl (Speotyto cunicularia) of American prairies that nests in burrows dug by animals such as prairie dogs or rabbits. use stinky stink v. stank or stunk , stunk, stink·ing, stinks v.intr. 1. To emit a strong foul odor. 2. a. To be highly offensive or abhorrent. b. decorations around their underground nests: other animal's dung DUNG. Manure. Sometimes it is real estate, and at other times personal property. When collected in a heap, it is personal estate; when spread out on the land, it becomes incorporated in it, and it is then real estate. Vide Manure. . A new study shows that the owls, Athene cunicularia (ah-THEE-nee CYOON-ihcuh-LAIR-ee-ah), gather the waste to attract dung beetles--a favorite snack. Douglas Levey, a zoologist (scientist who studies animals) at the University of Florida University of Florida is the third-largest university in the United States, with 50,912 students (as of Fall 2006) and has the eighth-largest budget (nearly $1.9 billion per year). UF is home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes. in Gainesville, and colleagues removed dung from some owls' nests. Then, they compared the diets of those owls to owls with dung-furnished lawns. Result: Owls with dung decorations averaged 10 times as many dung-beetle meals. The owls probably began using dung for other reasons, perhaps to mask the scent of young birds from predators. "Collecting beetles is just the icing on the cake," says Levey. FRONT PORCH: Owls spread dung near their nests' entrances. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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