Factors influencing the habitat use of owls in a mosaic landscape in Garo Hills, Meghalaya

Abstract

Habitat use of owls is under-studied in the tropics, and more so in North-eastern India, a part of the Indo-Burma region, one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. Twenty species of owls have been recorded in North-eastern India, and yet there have not been much studies on any of them from the region. Hence, a study on the habitat use of owls was conceived, selecting the Garo Hills in Meghalaya as the study site, where the landscape is a mosaic made up of plantations, agricultural fields, settlements, disturbed and undisturbed forests. The presence of Community Reserves, a type of Community Conserved Area, adds to the heterogeneity in the landscape.