Pest rodents cause extensive damage to crops worldwide. Up to 40% of global crop production is lost annually to pests and diseases, with rodents accounting for 15–30% of this loss amounting to billions of dollars each year. The current method of controlling rodent populations involves the extensive use of chemical rodenticides. While effective in the short term, these chemicals pose serious environmental and health risks, leading to secondary poisoning of non-target species and other long-term negative ecological consequences, underscoring the need to adopt more sustainable pest-control measures. Nature-Based Solutions (NbSs), on the other hand, are increasingly recognized for addressing environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable development, and they include actions that protect, sustainably manage, and restore ecosystems. In this context, Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are highly effective as a natural pest-rodent control agents in agro-ecosystems. The species has a wide distribution and adaptability to various environments, and its diet consists predominantly of small mammals, with rodents making up from 50–60% up to even 90–95% of the diet according to different geographical regions. Each Barn Owl family can consume thousands of rodents annually, creating a high potential to reduce crop damage and infestations. Deploying nest boxes in agricultural areas can significantly increase Barn Owl populations, ensuring continuous and effective rodent control. Limitations of this solution must also be taken into consideration such as predation on rodents and small mammals that are not pests, and possible competition with other nocturnal birds of prey. Ιn the current paper, we aim to introduce the concept of owls as a NbS for pest rodent control and outline the main challenges, pitfalls, advantages, and disadvantages of implementing this solution in a new geographical region, and all the necessary in-between steps (scientific, societal, administrative, educational) that have to be followed for a successful implementation. So far, several countries have successfully implemented Barn Owl nest box schemes, with Israel and Cyprus achieving reduction in the use of pesticides by 45% and 58%, respectively, whereas the project is spreading to other Mediterranean countries (Jordan, Palestine Authority, Greece, Morocco, Spain), in palm plantations in Malaysia and USA, and in the vineyards of Napa Valley in California. The success of Barn Owl nest box programs relies on integrating scientific research, societal needs, supportive policy frameworks, and education. Barn Owl nest box programs are both bottom-up and top-down initiatives, in need of the participation of farmers and local communities to establish and deploy the Barn Owl solution. Continuous research is also necessary to explore systematically Barn owl trophic ecology, foraging and breeding ecology, interactions with agricultural landscape, and land uses in temporal and spatial scales, and challenges such as habitat suitability, availability of nesting sites, and regional ecological conditions must also be addressed.

The barn owl, a nocturnal raptor with cosmopolitan distribution, shows a great adaptability to different environments. Regarding prey, the barn owl is a rather selective species, but if changes in the abundance of the selected prey occur, it becomes an opportunistic predator and easily incorporates other prey in its diet, using a wide range of prey species and foraging habitats. Small rodents are usually the prey mostly used. Compared to the populations of north and eastern Europe, barn owl populations in the Mediterranean area have been the least studied. In Cyprus, where barn owl is a common bird species, there are no studies on its diet and feeding ecology. This study was carried out to contribute to the spatial and temporal patterns barn owl diet in Cyprus also providing information on small mammals’ presence and species composition on the island. This study was based on 1407 regurgitated pellet analysis that were collected from 26 sites representing six major habitat types on central and southern Cyprus from summer 2013 to summer 2014. The diet of the barn owl was described in terms of seasonal average biomass and numerical percentages of each prey species and compared by Kruskal–Wallis test. Seasonal prey diversity and evenness indices were also calculated. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the prey biomass proportion data assigned to six major habitat types with regard to elevation, vegetation and human uses. Low prey diversity was found comprised mainly of rodents (overall means 96.2 and 95.7% by number and biomass, respectively). Mice followed by rats were most important prey whereas insectivores, birds and insects were minor components of the owl’s diet. Evenness and diversity values were relatively similar among seasons. PCA differentiated mainly between lowland areas where mice were more abundant prey and mountainous areas where rats dominated in the diet. Insectivores correlated with birds, prey types characterizing several lowland and highland habitats. The barn owl prey composition in Cyprus suggests an opportunistic foraging behavior, low prey species diversity with variations in the main rodent prey that could be explained by their distribution, seasonal activity and habitat preferences.

For large herbivores inhabiting arid/semi-arid environments, water can be a limiting resource affecting their distribution and abundance for periods when water requirements are not met via forage. The Cyprus mouflon (Ovis gmelini ophion) is such a species, which is endemic to the mountain habitats of Cyprus. Recognizing water scarcity to be a major pressure to the mouflon, and with global warming projected to intensify hot and dry periods in the region, the Game and Fauna Service has been maintaining a network of locally designed watering troughs in Pafos Forest—the mouflon’s stronghold—since 1997. This study describes the mouflon’s use of the water troughs and examines whether visitation rates differed at the daily or weekly scale in response to environmental, climatic or anthropogenic parameters. Using camera traps, ten troughs were monitored from September 2017 to March 2018 (1,065 days; range 29–164 days per trough). Mouflon were detected at seven troughs (mean herd size 1.5 ± 1.2) during 373 independent detections (≥30 min interval between photographs), with visits peaking during late morning and midday hours. Generalized mixed-effect models showed mouflon visiting water troughs more frequently during hotter days, regardless of recent precipitation. Visits were also more frequent at water troughs located close to tar roads. Moreover, there was no evidence of mouflon avoiding water troughs used by predators (red foxes, feral dogs) at either daily or weekly scale, or during hunting days. The study supports the value of artificial water troughs for mediating, partially at least, the effects of climate change on mountain ungulates such as the Cyprus mouflon. Additional studies are proposed that will examine both mouflon drinking patterns across all seasons and ways of improving the effectiveness of the current water trough grid.

The diet of the endemic Cyprus scops owl (Otus cyprius) was studied for the first time during the breeding season 2021 in 7 nesting sites from 6 sampling locations using the pellet analysis (n = 65 pellets). Insects, mostly Orthoptera and Coleoptera, comprised the bulk of the owl diet (87% abundance, 31% biomass), whereas small mammals and reptiles were important in terms of biomass, with 41% and 24%, respectively. Birds were the lowest prey order, with 0.6% abundance and 3.6% biomass. The most essential insects were grasshoppers (Acrididae) (17%) and scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae) (6%). From vertebrate prey, Mus spp. (23.7%), Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) (8%), Cyprus spiny mice (Acomys nesiotes) (8%), juvenile black rats (Rattus rattus) (7%), and Cyprus agamas (Laudakia cypriaca) (5%) stand out as % biomass. Predation on a bat species (Pipistrellus sp.) by scops owl was documented for the first time in Cyprus. The estimated prey biomass ranged from 0.1 – 25 grams, averaging 2.1 g.

Background: Indigenous sheep of Greece represent important genetic resources shaped by long-term adaptation to diverse environments. However, many populations face demographic decline, genetic erosion, and their genomic diversity remains inadequately characterized. This study presents a comprehensive genome-wide analysis of both recognized and previously uncharacterized indigenous Greek sheep. Newly genotyped data from 36 Greek breeds/populations, one Cypriot breed and one outgroup (Cypriot Mouflon) were combined with previously published genotypes from 85 international breeds and four additional outgroups, analyzing 127 ovine populations in total. To mitigate commercial BeadChip ascertainment bias when evaluating these uncharacterized populations, we utilized genome-wide SNP blocks to assess genetic diversity, reconstruct population structure, estimate effective population sizes, and place them within a broad comparative framework encompassing European, Southwest Asian, and North African breeds. Results: Genome-wide analyses evaluating 46,733 SNPs and 4347 multi-allelic haplotype blocks revealed a distinct ascertainment bias affecting Western and Eastern breeds differently. Mitigating this bias via the block-based approach demonstrated that Greek sheep breeds/populations retain high genetic diversity, despite pronounced heterogeneity. Breeds such as Lesvos, Vlahiko, and Karagouniko exhibited high heterozygosity, low inbreeding, and relatively large effective population sizes, whereas Thraki, Agrinio, Katafygio, Serres, and Argos showed low diversity, elevated inbreeding, and small recent effective population sizes. Greek breeds/populations occupied an intermediate position between Western European and Southwest Asian groups, reflecting their geographic location and historical role in early dispersal routes. Island populations (Cretan breeds, Kasos and Karpathos) formed a cohesive genetic cluster shaped by long-term isolation, while semi-fat-tailed Greek breeds showed close affinities with Middle Eastern and North African populations. Introgression from East Friesian sheep strongly influenced the genomic profile of the Arta breed. Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive genomic baseline for indigenous Greek and Cypriot sheep, highlighting their high genetic diversity and complex demographic histories. While several breeds represent valuable reservoirs of adaptive variation, others face immediate risk of genetic erosion. These findings provide essential guidance for prioritizing conservation actions and integrating genomic information into sustainable management and breeding strategies.