CHNAES-00700; No of Pages 6

Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (2020) xxx

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Acta Ecologica Sinica

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chnaes

Little owl (Athene noctua) around human settlements and agricultural

lands: Conservation and management enlightenments
Sayyad Sheykhi Ilanloo a,⁎,1, Elham Ebrahimi b,1, Negin Valizadegan c, Sohrab Ashrafi a,
Hamid Reza Rezaei d, Masoud Yousefi a
a
Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources University of Tehran, Iran
b
Department of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
c
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
d
Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Fisheries and Environmental Sciences, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Ecological studies have been focused on large, rare or endangered species but species which are adapted to tra-
Received 16 April 2019 ditional agroecosystems or rural environments received less attention. For example, Little owl is a typical inhab-
Received in revised form 16 April 2020 itant of agricultural lands and its population had greatly reduced due to the mechanized agriculture. In this paper,
Accepted 2 June 2020
we built the first country level habitat suitability map for the little owl and identified the most influential envi-
Available online xxxx
ronmental predictor of its distribution in Iran. We used species presence data (177 distribution points) and
Keywords:
eight uncorrelated environmental variables to model the species suitable habitats using the maximum entropy
Species distribution modeling approach (Maxent). Results showed that suitable habitats for this species are located in the northwest, parts of
Maxent north east and southwest of Iran. Distance to forests, distance to human settlements and distance to agricultural
Avian ecology lands are the most important determinants of the little owl distribution in Iran. Human migrations from rural
Conservation areas to the cities and availability of many vacant human settlements surrounded by traditional and semi-
modern agricultural landscapes produce suitable habitats for little owl in Iran.
© 2020 Ecological Society of China. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Understanding ecological requirements of species is vital for conser-
vation planning and to set appropriate strategies for landscape manage-
ment [1,2]. Individual habitat selection and habitat requirements are
defined by the spatial structure of their populations that is itself depen-
dent on abundance, distribution and access to resources [3]. Since most
of the ecological studies are focused on large, rare and endangered spe-
cies [4–7], inhabiting species near agricultural lands and rural areas re-
ceived less attention and fewer research targeted these species [8–10].
Although these areas are highly managed by humans, enough informa-
tion do not exist on the species in these habitats. Therefore, evaluation
of the effects of common management activities in these regions is dif-
ficult and doubtful.
Little owl is a small bird of prey (Fig. 1) that occurs in Palearctic,
Indomalayan and Afrotropical regions [11]. The species lives in a wide
variety of habitats from semi-open areas to rocky semi-desert regions
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sayyad.sheykhi@ut.ac.ir (S. Sheykhi Ilanloo).
1
The first and second author contributed equally to this paper.
and steppes, as well as agricultural lands, open woodlands and rural re-
gions [11]. Little owl feeds on insects, small mammals and birds, mostly
hunts at nights and rarely feeds during the day. The species population
status is unknown in its eastern distribution such as the Middle East and
Asia [12]. Some studies conducted on this species in Mediterranean re-
gions and Europe [13–15] show found that little owl is going under pop-
ulation reductions and no evidence of its presence is found in many of
its suitable habitats [16]. Compared to other birds of the steppe region,
the species had the highest population reduction due to response to
change of local landscape characteristics [8,17,18].
Although the population trend of little owl appears to be stable in
some countries, it is considered an endangered species in Czech
Republic due to a loss of 59% of its populations from 1985 to 2003
[19]. Habitat loss and low access to food at the time of high agricultural
activity are among the most important reasons of their population re-
duction in these areas [13,14,20,21]. Due to common changes in agricul-
tural lands, little owl is negatively affected by agricultural intensification
and abandoning lands for forest rehabilitation or urban development
[17]. Agricultural intensification was based on eradication of the inter-
mediate situation such as hedgerows, single-trees and stone houses in
agricultural lands, introducing new agricultural methods such as using

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2020.06.001
1872-2032/© 2020 Ecological Society of China. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: S. Sheykhi Ilanloo, E. Ebrahimi, N. Valizadegan, et al., Little owl (Athene noctua) around human settlements and
agricultural lands: Conservation and management enlightenments..., Acta Ecologica Sinica, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2020.06.001
2 S. Sheykhi Ilanloo et al. / Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (2020) xxx
fertilizers, chemicals and pesticides, and expanded cultivation of a sin-
gle product in the lands [22,23]. Agricultural intensification was found
to be correlated with population reduction of other bird species espe-
cially those avian species depending on agricultural lands [22,24–26].
Despite of the large distribution of little owl in Iran, no studies have
been done for identifying suitable habitats for the species. This study is
aimed to identify suitable and unsuitable habitats of little owl in Iran
based on abiotic factors and determine the most important environ-
mental variables influencing the species distribution. Since little owl is
a typical inhabitant of steppe and agricultural lands, the results of this
study can be used for management of biodiversity in these ecosystems.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
Iran is located in north temperate zone between the latitudes of 25
to 40° and longitude of 44 to 63° with an average area of
1,648,195 km2 in southwest of Asia (Fig. 2). Fifty percent of Iran lands
are covered with high elevated mountain ranges and large sections of
its central areas are covered by arid plains. Apart from the inland deserts
and the lowlands along the Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman,
half of Iran is consisted of high mountains. Main mountain ranges in
Iran include Alborz, Zagros, Kopet Dagh, and Makran. Iran has several el-
evations and Alpine zones and is in Asian Interior Arid-Zone [27]. Hyrca-
nian forests along the southern edges of the Caspian Sea contain humid
climate with vegetation cover that is consisted of plains, forests and
mountains [28,29]. Elevation above the sea level changes from −26 m
in Caspian Sea beaches to 5860 m in Damavand Mount.
2.2. Occurrence records and distribution data
The existence of a relationship between environmental conditions
and species presence is an important assumption for making species
distribution models [30]. Therefore, we need at least two types of
input data listed as biological and environmental data to make models
of habitat suitability [30]. Little owl distribution records were collected
through opportunistic observations between 2010 and 2018 and
downloaded for GBIF (GBIF.org (14 January 2019) GBIF Occurrence
Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.xeels3). In total, 177 distribution
records collected and used in Maxent model. We used eight uncorre-
lated (Pearson's r ≤ 0.70) environmental variables (Table 1) to model
its habitat suitability in Iran. We selected these variables based on the
Fig. 1. Little owl in its natural habitats, Khorasan-e-Razavi province. Photo by Ali Khani.
Please cite this article as: S. Sheykhi Ilanloo, E. Ebrahimi, N. Valizadegan, et al., Little owl (Athene noctua) around human settlements and
agricultural lands: Conservation and management enlightenments..., Acta Ecologica Sinica, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2020.06.001
species ecology, literature review and our field observations of the spe-
cies habitats.)
2.3. Habitat suitability modeling
We used Maxent 3.4.1 [31] to model habitat suitability of the little
owl in Iran. Maximum entropy algorithm is based on machine learning
technique that evaluates the probability of the distribution of maximum
entropy values affected by limitations from environmental variables
that are important on the species distribution [31,32]. Modeling based
on this method is very reliable; it needs only presence data and has
the ability to consider both continuous and discrete variables in the
model [31]. In addition, this method helps us to identify the most impor-
tant environmental variables affecting species distribution [31,32]. We
used 70% of the presence data for making the model and 30% of the
data for testing the model. Due to importance of agricultural lands for
the species we estimated area of suitable habitats within agricultural
lands. We used Area under the Curve (AUC) acquired from a ROC
curve to evaluate our model [31]. The area under this curve shows
how powerful our model is in distinguishing presence from the absence
data and is independent from the definition of suitability thresholds
[31].
3. Results
3.1. Model performance
Maxent model developed in this study showed high predictive per-
formance (AUC = 0.838 for training and 0.811 for test data) so our
model was reliable in describing the species distribution based on the
environmental variables and presence data.
3.2. Habitat suitability model
Our results showed that the most suitable habitats for little owl in
Iran are in the northwest, northeast, southwest and sections of northern
parts of the country. In general, based on the variables in this paper,
most of the suitable habitats of little owl were found in the northern
parts of Iran (Fig. 3). We also found that little owl generally avoids
dense forest areas and inhabits in open forests (Fig. 3).
3.3. Variable importance
Results showed that distance to forests (51.2%), distance to human
settlements (16.2%), and distance to agricultural lands (15.5%) were
consecutively the most important variables in habitat selection of little
owl in Iran (Table 2).
3.4. Suitable habitats within agricultural lands
Results of estimating area of suitable habitats of the species whitin
the agricultural lands showed that 151,718 km2 of the species suitable
habitat are within agricultural areas in Iran. Most of the suitable habitats
within agricultural lands are located in northwest and northeast of the
country (Fig. 4).
4. Discussion
In this study, we developed a habitat suitability model for the little
owl and identified the most important variables for the distribution of
the species. Our models showed that agricultural lands are currently
suitable habitats for this species in Iran. Little owl is often described as
typical inhabitant of open agricultural regions, grasslands and rural set-
tlements. Previous studies have shown concerns for population reduc-
tion and existence of suitable habitats that have not been populated
by any of the individuals of this species [16,33]. Confirming previous
 S. Sheykhi Ilanloo et al. / Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (2020) xxx 3

Fig. 2. Distribution records of little owl (Athene noctua) in Iran (red dots).

Table 1 tree holes are considered a threatening predator for little owl in forest
Environmental variables used in in developing a habitat suitability model for the little owl habitats [39–41]. Due to the presence of tawny owl in dense forests
(Athene noctua) in Iran. and mammals in semi-dense forests in the country, both factors seem
Variable Source to be the potential reasons for forest avoidance of little owl in Iran.
Salek and Lovi (2012) showed that little owl positively reacted to factors
Slope the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
Elevation (SRTM) elevation model
such as buildings, roads and prairies while avoiding forests and high
Distance to agricultural lands the Iranian Forests, Rangeland and Watershed vegetation cover.
Distance to forests Management Organization
Distance to lakes
Distance to rangelands
Distance to human settlements
Distance to rivers
4.2. Human settlements

According to the findings, human settlements are the second most

findings, our results showed that distance from forest, distance to
human settlements and distance to agricultural lands are the most influ-
ential determinants of little owl distribution in Iran.
4.1. Forest habitats
It is known that little owl generally avoids forested areas [9,19,34].
We found that distance from forests is one of the most significant vari-
ables for the habitat selection of this species. Not only this species has
the lowest chance of being observed in dense forest habitats, it also
avoids edge areas of semi-dense forests [35,36]. Avoidance of forest
and forest edges has been recognized as a response to the presence of
a bird of prey species called the tawny owl [9,37,38]. In other studies,
where tawny owl was not present, mammals that search for refuge in
important factor in shaping distribution of the little owl in Iran. These
variables include villages around the country that contain traditional ag-
ricultural lands and traditional and semi-modern cultivation systems.
Most of the breeding nests of the little owl in European regions are
near anthropological structures and especially agricultural lands and
residential areas and therefore the species distributionis close to
human settlements [21]. Priority of human settlements for little owl
shows that this species has a high correlation with these areas [34],
confirming our results. Martinez and Zuberogoiti (2004a) found similar
results in Spain. It has been found that little owl is more commonly ob-
served in human settlements compared to natural areas for breeding
[42]. This could be due to the loss of its natural habitats that shifted
the species habitats to rural areas [14]. This seems to be the case in
Iran as well, as we observed little owl mostly in agricultural lands for
feeding and rural areas for breeding consecutively.

Please cite this article as: S. Sheykhi Ilanloo, E. Ebrahimi, N. Valizadegan, et al., Little owl (Athene noctua) around human settlements and
agricultural lands: Conservation and management enlightenments..., Acta Ecologica Sinica, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2020.06.001
4 S. Sheykhi Ilanloo et al. / Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (2020) xxx
Fig. 3. Habitat suitability of the little owl (Athene noctua) in Iran.
Table 2
Contribution of environmental variables to the Maxent model.
Variable Percent contribution
Distance to forests 51.2
Distance to human settlements 16.2
Distance to agricultural lands 15.5
Distance to lakes 12.4
Elevation 3
Distance to rangelands 1.4
Distance to rivers 0.2
Slope 0.1
4.3. Agricultural lands
Agricultural lands were among the most important determinants of
the species distribution such that with an increase in distance from agri-
cultural lands, habitat suitability will decrease. As mentioned before, little
owl is a typical inhabitant of traditional agricultural lands and rural land-
scapes and has been threatened by alterations from traditional to modern
agricultural systems and industrial farming [8,17]. This includes loss of
nest, prey reduction and negative effects of pesticides on their offspring
[8,17,40,43,44] which have led to the loss of necessary resources for this
species in the Europe. However, due to existence of traditional farming,
little owl is still present in many regions in Iran. Lack of using mechanical
equipment in cultivation and harvest of products especially in dry lands
have led to conservation of the species habitats in agricultural areas. Im-
portant elements of traditional agriculture such as hedgerows, isolated
trees and rocks, conventional equipment and non-chemical fertilizers
are obliterated from modern farming [22,23,45]. This has led to the pro-
tection of agricultural lands as suitable habitats for the little owl. Distance
form agricultural lands was identified as an important driver of distribu-
tion of Asian Houbara Chlamydotis macqueenii [46], Little bustard Tetrax
tetrax [47], and Common pheasant Phasianus colchicus [48] in Iran be-
cause these species visit agricultural land to feed.
Please cite this article as: S. Sheykhi Ilanloo, E. Ebrahimi, N. Valizadegan, et al., Little owl (Athene noctua) around human settlements and
agricultural lands: Conservation and management enlightenments..., Acta Ecologica Sinica, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2020.06.001
4.4. Conclusions
As a typical inhabitant of agricultural and steppe lands, the popula-
tion of little owl has dramatically decreased in many countries. Suitable
habitats for feeding and breeding of this species have gone under vast
developments [49]. Around 11.5% of Iran is covered by agricultural
lands that are more than the area covered by protected areas. If these
areas, secondary habitats, are not under severe and focused farming,
they can contain and protect sensitive bird species of primary habitats.
Agricultural lands are important habitats for globally threatened and
vulnerable avian species like Eastern imperial eagle Aquila heliaca and
Great bustard Otis tarda which are high priority species for conservation.
Thus, it is necessary to identify species that depend on agricultural
lands.
Unfortunately, these areas are under the risk of developed and fo-
cused farming which could lead to the population reduction of many
steppe birds and other wildlife species. Ecological relationships be-
tween wildlife and agricultural lands help promoting bird habitats
and natural control of pesticides [50]. Also, a mosaic of habitats
made by farm management can help protect species with different
resource requirements [51]. Considering the enhancement of immi-
gration from rural to urban areas, vacant human settlements
surrounded by agricultural lands can provide suitable habitats for
the little owl. We encourage traditional agricultural practices in and
around the most suitable habitats of the species for successful con-
servation of the species.
A recent review has shown that climate change will have negative
impacts on Iran's biodiversity [52]. Under climate change, some species
will lose their suitable habitats while some may gain new habitats [53].
In fact, response to climate change is species specific. Therefore, it is nec-
essary to study each species response to climate change separately to be
able to set proper conservation programs. We suggest future studies to
investigate the impacts of climate change on the populations of little
owl in Iran.
 S. Sheykhi Ilanloo et al. / Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (2020) xxx
Fig. 4. Suitable habitats of the little owl (Athene noctua) within agricultural lands.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank Ali Khani, Houman Doroudi, Mohammad
Ghorban Kanani, Iraj Alipour, Morteza Rajabi Moghaddam, Naeem
Kaveh Pishghadam, Mehdi Araghi, Salman Hamidi, Behzad Azimi, Saeed
Heidary, Wahid Ghaderi, Sattar Shiri, Saeed Molaei, Aliasghar
Rahimzadeh, Buyok Raei, Javad Abbasi, Soheil Faramarzi, Sedigheh
Sharifi and Mehdi Yousefi for providing data. We also thank Anooshe
Kafash for her help in data analysis.
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