Inorder to save the rare northern spotted owl, biologists are doing something th-组卷网

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In order to save the rare northern spotted owl, biologists are doing something that goes against their heart — shooting another owl that’s rapidly taking over spotted owls’ territory (领地) across the northwest.

During the 1990s, a few barred owls showed up in an area of forests along Redwood Creek that was spotted owls’ territory. Barred owls, which reproduce much faster than spotted owls, now claim nearly all this territory. No spotted owls have nested here in recent years.

“It’s very annoying and there’s nothing that’s going to stop this expansion of barred owls,” says Diller, who has studied spotted owls for 25 years. The only possible solution forces him to go against his nature.

Diller’s a hunter, but he was taught never to kill a bird or anything you didn’t plan to eat. Diller remembers the first time he took a shot. “I was so nervous about what I was doing that I had to steady myself against a tree.” Over the past five years, Diller has killed more than 70 barred owls with a shotgun. “I hate it every time I go out and do it,” he says. People recognized that there’s a crisis for spotted owls and those barred owls are part of the cause of that crisis. So, they unwillingly attempted to kill the barred owls.

A group, Friends of Animals, doesn’t believe the government can make a moral argument for shooting an animal, even if it would benefit another animal.

“I don’t see that as being a solution. At some point you have to allow these species to either figure out a way to coexist or for nature to run its course,” says Michael Harris, director of Friends of Animals.

But Diller argues that is an absurd thing to say after all the way humans have changed nature. People cut down most of the forests that used to host barred owls. They made lots of changes to the Great Plains, which he believes helped the barred owl move across the continent.

For Diller, seeing rare spotted owls increase in the forests is worth the pain of shooting barred owls.

“Probably what makes spotted owls so special is the fact that they fly right up to you,” Diller says. “You get to interact with them. It’s almost impossible for a biologist not to fall in love with these birds — they’re just the neatest animal.”

【小题1】According to the passage, spotted owls lost their habitats directly because ________.

A．the Great Plains was changed greatly

B．they are invaded by barred owls

C．people cut down many trees in the forests

D．people shot spotted owls a lot

【小题2】Diller felt nervous in his first attempt to shoot a barred owl because ________.

A．he thought it wrong to do it

B．he planned to eat a barred owl

C．he was afraid of frightening owls

D．he used a shotgun for the first time

【小题3】The group Friends of Animals insists that ________.

A．shooting an animal is a moral choice