Background & Current Status  

A special owl....

  • World's largest (heaviest and longest) barn owl (Tyto species) with the greatest foot size enabling it to take animals up to the size of small pademelons and large chickens 1, 2, 3
  • Tasmania's largest owl
  • One of Australia's rarest owls (latest published estimate 1100 breeding birds) 4.
  • Possibly Tasmania's most demanding tree hollow user because of its requirement for very large hollows in very large trees.
  • One of the world's most beautiful and intriguing animals.

1 On current information, the female Sooty owl (Tyto tenebricosa) is slightly smaller than the female Tasmanian masked owl. Note also that the Indonesian Tyto species are very poorly known.

2 Mooney (1993). 3 Young (2006). 4 Bell et al. (1997).

 

 

BACKGROUND- Tree Hollows and the Tasmanian Masked Owl

TREE HOLLOWS- One of the most critical habitat components for fauna

Tree hollows have been identified as being critically important for many species of fauna both as resting sites and nesting sites 1, 2. The Australian eucalypt forests are particularly prone to forming tree hollows yet it can take over 120 years for them to begin hollow development 3. This is a problem for forest managers who have a responsibility to manage the hollow resource and its obligate fauna sustainably while still maintaining production.  Thus, the conservation of hollow-using fauna has become a prominent land-management issue 4.

In Tasmania, species that use hollows for nesting or shelter are recognized priority species under the Tasmanian Regional Forest Agreement 1997 because of concerns that forestry activities will decrease hollow numbers and reduce populations of hollow-dependent fauna.

The conservation management of hollows is likely to be of critical importance to hollow-using fauna with the masked owl one of the species most likely to be affected. In the solution of this problem the requirements of the masked owl, one of Tasmania’s most demanding hollow-users need to be established.

 

STATUS OF TASMANIAN MASKED OWL - Endangered Species

The Tasmanian masked owl Tyto novaehollandiae castanops, is Tasmania’s largest nocturnal bird-of-prey. Breeding population size has been estimated to be approximately 1100 individuals (Bell et al. 1997).

Past land clearing and forest management practices inevitably affect the structure and age characteristics of forests. To what extent this is affecting the masked owl remains unclear largely because of the species difficulty of detection and a dearth of knowledge on the species ecological requirements. What is known is that it requires cavities in large, old eucalypt trees for nesting. Dimensions of such trees are usually between 95-191cm in diameter and over 165 years of age (Mooney 1997).

Because of these facts it is listed as endangered in Tasmania (TSPA 1995)  and in the Action Plan for Australian Birds (2000) (Garnett and Crowley 2000). The species is currently nominated for listing as endangered under the Commonwealth’s EPBC Act 1999.

 

Tasmanian masked owl distribution

Approximate distribution of the Tasmanian masked owl.

 
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