Interactions
By observing barn owls, we can see how they play a role within their surrounding environment. Their interactions with both their prey and predators helps establish their position on the food web, as well as, see their relationship with humans. As discussed on the Nutrition page, the Tyto alba species survives on eating rodents and other small animals such as fish and lizards. The barn owl in turn becomes prey to a wide range of predators. Some examples include stoats, snakes, and golden eagles. They too share a parasitic relationship by taking on the role of a host to parasitic organisms such as protozoans and some intestinal species. Barn owls do though on the other hand, have a mutualistic relationship with humans, preferably famers. With rodents being a part of the owl’s diet, they reduce the rodent population on farms, and even for other humans living in their vicinity. In turn, humans supply the barn owl with a place to nest whether it is in a barn, where they commonly retained their name, or in man-made nest boxes (Animal Diversity Web, 2002).
