We Are All Aware Of Guard Dogs,

used to protect property, 

but guard owls? strange but true, I took the photograph above of an owl when we were with Steve and Kai in Edinburgh in March 2018, back to the guard owls, I have heard that geese can be used as guard birds, and that the practice had started back in Roman times, also in the same article, it mentions that back in 1986 an Associated Press release describes how the US Army had purchased 750 geese from German farmers to guard their military sites in Germany, but what about the owls? they actually protect farmers crops! In Japan field voles can seriously impact the profits of apple orchard owners, if left unchecked,

 for centuries, many farmers have relied on owls to keep vole numbers to manageable levels, and research has shown the night predators to be incredibly efficient, after noticing  when owls were in the orchard the framers allowed the owls to set up nests in tree hollows, they also started installing man-made tree houses to encourage owls from settling on their properties. They soon noticed that the owls brought the vole population down significantly, which meant healthier trees and bigger profits, Using pesticides or other chemical means isn’t always an option, especially on organic farms, so many orchard owners rely on Ural owls, (Strix uralensis), which are named after the Ural Mountains, in Russia to keep voles in check, even though the use of owls has been a tradition in Japan for many years, the birds’ efficiency as a means of pest control has also been confirmed by modern research. In a 2018 study, a team of Japanese scientists quantified the pest control effects of breeding Ural owls in apple orchards, and found that the night time predators reduced vole populations within their estimated breeding territories by 63%, compared with orchards with no owl activity, “As breeding Ural owls provide significant pest control effects within their breeding territories, the reintroduction of breeding Ural owl pairs within orchards would contribute to rodent pest control,” 

the study concluded. “Promoting the reproduction of native raptors in agricultural areas can be an option for developing integrated pest management while simultaneously maintaining regional biodiversity.” a single owl can hunt up to 10 voles per night, and as the birds breed, their effectiveness also grows, the use of owls is not unique to Japan, in fact, as can be seen from the video above vineyards and orchards in the United States have been using them for decades as well, how amazing guard owls!