The municipality of Chlorakas in Paphos is following the example of the municipality of Peyia, which has installed artificial nests for barn owls (Tyro alba) as part of a rodent control project.
This is what community leader Nikolas Liasides told Philenews on Wednesday, adding that the nest installation was carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture’s game fund.
The birds of prey are very useful to the ecosystem as a barn owl eats around 2,000 rodents annually, he also said.
At the same time, positioning nests in designated areas has proven to be a successful method of reducing rodent numbers without the use of chemicals.