Heimo Mikkola

By Heimo Mikkola

Part of the book: Biodiversity Enrichment in a Diverse World

By Heimo Mikkola

Part of the book: Bats

By Heimo Mikkola

Part of the book: Seabirds

By Heimo Mikkola

So far the Central Asian owl beliefs have not been well studied. As I have had opportunities to live and visit some countries regularly since 2009, it became possible to study owl beliefs mainly in Kyrgyzstan but also comparing some findings with Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Turkmenistan. In Kyrgyzstan, 124 persons were interviewed in 2010: 82 males and 42 females. Age of respondents varied from 12 to over 60 and all lived in the capital area of the country. Half of the respondents listed owls as wise and 43% just as a bird, and nobody saw the owl as a bird bringing bad luck. On the contrary, 34% believed that owls are helpful and bring good luck. Kazakhstan shares a Central Asian veneration of owls. Eurasian eagle owl feathers are used as precious amulets protecting children and livestock from evil spirits. The main reason why so many Mongolian people hold the owl to be sacred could be the history that the owl once saved the life of Genghis Khan, king of kings and supreme Khan of all the Mongols and Kalmyks in Tartary Empire. For the Turkmens, the little owl is a sacred bird, killing of which would be a great sin.

Part of the book: Owls

By Heimo Mikkola

Part of the book: Edible Insects

By Heimo Mikkola

Part of the book: Owls

By Alan Sieradzki and Heimo Mikkola

Fossil evidence indicates that owls have been preying on bats from as far back as the Pleistocene. Overall, bats form quite small portions (i.e. trace to 0.2%) of the diets (by prey frequency) of European owls. An assessment of dietary studies and anecdotal accounts reveals that five species of European owls, the Eurasian scops owl Otus scops, Pygmy owl Glaucidium passerinum, Tengmalm’s owl Aegolius funereus, little owl Athene noctua and Ural owl Strix uralensis, rarely feed on bats (with less than 0.1−0.4%) and a further two species, short-eared owl Asio flammeus and eagle owl Bubo bubo, may only take bats occasionally, while three species, long-eared owl Asio otus, barn owl Tyto alba and tawny owl Strix aluco, feed on bats more frequently. In this study, a total of 19,864 recorded bats have been preyed upon by these owls, with as many as 48 bat species being identified. Barn and tawny owls have captured most of this total (47.1 and 41.9%), followed by the long-eared owl (7.6%), while short-eared and eagle owls take similar amounts of bats (1.1 and 1.7%, respectively). Owl predation on bats deserves future research because it may help contribute to our knowledge on bat biodiversity and distribution and possibly identify an additional risk for small populations of endangered bats.

Part of the book: Owls

By Heimo Juhani Mikkola

The Amazon basin is the largest tropical rainforest in the world covering almost 40 per cent of the South American continent. For centuries, its vastness and inaccessibility have been protecting this area. The general belief is that the Amazonia region has unparalleled biodiversity which means that one in five of all bird species known in the globe lives in the Amazon Jungle. The author is testing this claim against the known occurrence of the world owl species. There are fewer owl species in Amazonia than expected namely 34 (against 54 expected). Two possible reasons are that our knowledge of the Amazon region species is still incomplete as may be indicated that new owl species have been found recently. The other reason could be that the rainforest is not after all the most wanted biotope for many of the owl species which often depend on the prey available in the bottom tier of the forest which is flooded during the wet season. Whatever the reason is, more detailed research is needed on all species of the Amazon region as there must be many new owls and other animal species out there waiting to be discovered. We have no idea how many of those new species have been or will be lost due to the rainforest destruction before they can be discovered. Therefore, it is necessary to stop deforestation in the Amazonia, be it due to forest logging, uncontrolled fires (often deliberately set) agriculture expansion or industrial development. Deforestation is not the only reason that the Amazon basin is changing. The rainforest suffers also from the global climate change when the higher temperatures reduce the rainfall in the tropical Atlantic region, causing drought and increasing the fire susceptibility of the rainforest. Luckily the owls are not so sensitive to surrounding forest cover as many other tropical forest-dependent bird species, like the large-bodied avian frugivores. Impacts of forest fragmentation on owls will need additional research.

Part of the book: Ecosystem and Biodiversity of Amazonia

By Heimo Mikkola

The Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis) has had recent uncontrolled population increase in all of its northern distribution areas and is now one of the three most abundant goose species in the world. Not many birds, other than this have had such a naming mystery and a long time it was not known if the Barnacle Goose was a bird or a fish. So no wonder that also its conservation or possible hunting divides the opinions of people and authorities. This chapter is suggesting well regulated, sustainable, springtime hunting of these geese in such agriculture fields they will cause most serious crop losses. To be effective and meet public social approval, management actions must have a strong scientific basis and include an efficient monitoring programme. Necessary decisions to reach a consensus among stakeholders are discussed.

Part of the book: Birds

By Alan Sieradzki and Heimo Mikkola

Belief systems of people have always been closely related to animals, which are symbolized in traditional narratives. Sociocultural definitions of animals as “good or evil” have persisted throughout the history of human beings. In the West, bats are often perceived as evil spirits, Vampires, and harbingers of death, while some cultures across the Asia-Pacific region associate bats with good fortune. Here, we review documented narratives and surveys from around the world and our ethnographic observations from Europe to analyze beliefs associated with bats. We explore the role that bats play in traditional narratives and the likely reasons for their salience, including their connections with the extraordinary and supernatural. Finally, we discuss shortly the need of education to change attitudes toward bats. In North America, education has had some effect as more people have started to understand how useful bats truly are and how few cases of bat-born rabies transmission to humans there have been in the United States and Canada. It remains to be seen, however, how effectively the further education efforts could halt or even reverse the decline of the bats around the world. It is also noted that bat tourism has a potential to conserve bat populations while providing social and economic benefits to local people in host communities.

Part of the book: Bats