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AZ Uplands Plant and Animal Life

Animal

Elf Owl (Micrathene whitneyi)

Facts and Physique

The Elf Owl is the smallest Owl in the world,about the size of a sparrow and just as small as Peru's Long-whiskered Owlet. It is less than six inches tall and weight about one to one and a half ounces. The Elf Owl is not an aggressive bird, when captured by a pray of sorts, the Elf Owl plays dead untill all danger has cleared.

Elf owls are classified as endangered in California. In some areas where deforestation is occurring, elf owls face losses of breeding habitat due to the destruction of the woodpecker holes they use as nest cavities. Attempts at conservation have generally been unsuccessful up to this point. For example, a 1983 endeavor to bring back native riparian woodland along the Lower Colorado River had mixed results because the salinity content of the soil was too high and irrigation of the native trees proved difficult. Another attempt at conservation occurred in 1994 at the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area in Trans-Pecos, Texas. Nest-boxes modeled after disappearing ladder-backed woodpecker holes were set up. The effectiveness of the attempt is unknown because no studies were conducted before the nest-boxes were set up, and there were no control groups. Conservation efforts that should continue include: field experiments that assess the habitat and populations of elf owls before the introduction of nest-boxes, the result of introducing nest-boxes into the elf owl’s habitat, and a continuous censusing of elf owl populations, which are subject to natural cycles of population increases and declines.()

Habitat

The Elf Owl is mostly seen looking out of a hole in a saguaro cactus tree and woodpeckers hole. They can be found in mountains reaching elevations of up to 6000ft. Elf Owl is one of two highly migratory owl species in North America. They migrate to Mexico when it gets too cold because insects will not come out in the cold.

Diet

Elf owls are small, so they hunt insects, spiders, scorpions, and centipedes, which live in the hot deserts of the southwestern United States. Only once in a while do elf owls manage to catch a mouse or lizard. Their quill feathers are not soft like those of other owls, so they make a swishing sound as they fly. Sometimes the creatures they are trying to catch hear the noise and escape.(Letchworth)

Life Span

The maximum age of elf owls is about five years in the wild, although they can reach 14 years in captivity. Causes of mortality among elf owls include: predation, competition with other species, competition between nestlings, and exposure.

Plant

Larrea Tridentata (Creosote bush)

Facts

• often called ‘greasewood’
• It produces small

Creosote contains a powerful antioxidant called nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA). When NDGA was discovered in the 1940s, it was immediately adopted as a food and pharmaceutical preservative for lard, oil, candies, baking mixes, frozen foods, vitamins and drugs (Turner 2009). That use ended when animal studies showed the compound to be toxic to the kidneys.(Garza)

Habitat

• found mostly in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts.

Creosote grows in large stands under the scorching desert sun. The most drought-tolerant plant in North America, it can survive two years without water.(Garza)

Shelter for:

Creosote contributes habitat to its community by stabilizing the thin desert soil, allowing burrowing rodents and in turn, reptiles, amphibians and owls to find a home (Rea 1997). Its flowers and fruit are popular with insects, birds and small mammals, but few creatures browse its resinous, unpalatable leaves except in time of drought.(Garza)

• Desert tortoises dig their shelters under creosotebush where its roots stabilize the soil.
• Banner-tailed kangaroo rats frequently use creosotebush for cover.
• Merriam's kangaroo rats often make their dens under creosotebush.
• Some subspecies of kit fox rest and den in creosotebush flats.

Importance

• Creosote bush is an antimicrobial
• Used by Native American as medicine
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Tuberculosis
• Chicken pox
• Dysmenorrhea
• Snakebite
• cancer
• When Larrea Tridentata is called chaparral when used a herbal remedy

Reference

1) Letchworth, Beverly J. “Elf in the Saguaro.” Children’s Playmate Magazine, vol. 67, no. 7, Oct. 1995, p. 28. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=9510102761&site=eds-live.
2) Garza, Rebecca. “Creosote Bush: Medicinal Shrub of the Southwestern Deserts.” Journal of the American Herbalists Guild, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 2015, pp. 42–46. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c8h&AN=108355538&site=eds-live. 3)https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Micrathene_whitneyi/