Photo by Faruk Kizil
Habichtskauz auch Uralkauz
Das Bild entstand an einer Futterstelle beim Falkner in den Niederlande.
Ural owl (Strix uralensis)
The picture was taken at a feeding place of a falconer in Netherlands.
One of the given translations called this Habich's Owl, so I tried to find out who Habich was. Took me way too long to figure out Habich was not a person, it means goshawk in German. The German wiki entry had a lot of info the US one didn't though.
The species is referred to as Slaguggla, or “attacking owl”, in Swedish, Habichtskauz, or “goshawk-owl”, in German or as the “long-tailed owl” in Russian.
Attempts to re-introduce the owl have been partly successful in the German-Austrian-Czech border region (Bavarian Forest , Bohemian Forest , and Šumava), and most recently in the Vienna Woods.
Austria seems to have a difficult time with the project as people keep shooting them. 🙄
German Wiki
I'd argue the restoration of natural populations of native animals is more important than sports entertainment. The killing of the owls sounds to mainly be a protest of sorts.
Yeah, I'm fine with people hunting for food or sport but only if they don't waste the food and they don't over hunt or kill protected/rare species. Shooting the owls to protect small game is messed up.
I hunt whitetail deer once a year and even that much meat is barely worth the effort.
Most hunters I've met are decent people who care about animals and the environment, but then you have some real oddballs at the other end of the spectrum. I don't know if those types have respect for much of anything, themselves included. I don't know all the small mammals available in Austria, but if they're much like squirrels or rabbits in NA, they aren't all that exciting and tasty to be violating federal laws over.
The owls didn't leave or die off because they've lost their role, they've been eliminated by this same type of thoughtlessness. You will have a better overall environment, including for hunting, if you take care of your ecosystem, mainly by leaving it the heck alone.