Fort Lonesome Burrowing Owl Study

Client: Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC

Location: Hillsborough and Manatee Counties, FL

Summary: Cardno ENTRIX and Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC. developed a study plan for Florida burrowing owls in an effort to document the population status of burrowing owls on lands owned and/or controlled by Mosaic.

The goals of the study plan were to: 1) gather baseline data on the distribution, reproductive success, survival, dispersal, habitat requirements, and food habits of Florida burrowing owls, and 2) use the data to evaluate various potential future options to manage Florida burrowing owls.

Since the inception of the study plan in March 2004, Cardno ENTRIX has conducted extensive burrowing owl surveys on Mosaic property in an effort to establish baseline population data and color band burrowing owls. In an effort to continue to work toward protecting burrowing owls on Mosaic?s property, Cardno ENTRIX assisted Mosaic in the first translocation of burrowing owls in Florida in February and March 2006. Two discrete populations of burrowing owls were translocated to a reclaimed, improved pasture from two areas that were permitted to be mined. The experimental project served as a proactive conservation effort to protect owls on Mosaic lands, rather than an incidental taking of their nests and displacing them from their native habitat. As part of the translocation, Cardno ENTRIX documented dispersal patterns, reproductive success, survival, habitat requirements, and food habits of burrowing owls in a rural population. The translocation was a success with five of the seven translocated owl pairs breeding and producing chicks on the reclaimed site.