LITTLE ROCK - The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is funding a project at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to determine the distribution of the desert shrew in Arkansas.

The AGFC is soliciting information on barn owl nests to help in this project, according to the agency’s nongame mammal coordinator Blake Sasse. “One of the ways we have located them in the past is by looking for their remains in barn owl pellets,” Sasses said. “We need as much information as possible on nest locations in southwestern Arkansas to help the grad student who is carrying out the project,” he added.

The barn owl is a medium-sized bird and has noticeably long legs, Sasse explained. “They have large heads with a markedly heart shaped facial ruff.  Barn owls roost in a wide variety of locations: trees, cliffs, caves, riverbanks, church steeples, barn lofts, haystacks, and nest boxes,” he said.

Roost sites can be identified by the presence of pellets. Owl pellets consist of hair and bones, which cannot be digested by the owl.  If you know of any barn owl roost sites, please contact Stacie Thomas at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Biology, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock, AR  72204, phone 501-569-3270 or email at sxthomas@ualr.edu.

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