Conocimiento popular y cultural sobre los búhos en la ciudad de Loja, Andes del sur del Ecuador.

Abstract

In the tropical region, the main threats that owl populations face are: the high pesticide usage, illegal trafficking, landscape transformation, illegal hunting, and habitat destruction. However, owls have been object of misconceptions, fear and mystery attitudes or perceptions, which in result have generated legends or beliefs related to them. The present study pretends to determine the degree ok knowledge about owls of the population of the city of Loja through the implementation of surveys to two different generations. In regard to the perceptions about these birds, the majority of them were positive since 84.80% of people mentioned to have interest for conserving owls. In addition, 80.24% of people considered that the owls are important for the environment. The negative aspect was that the surveys revealed that 21.84% of citizens think that owls are ill-omened. On the other hand, the results pointed out that there were differences, regarding to the level of knowledge about owls, between youth and adults. Adults shown to have a higher level of information and to be better educated about owls.