SummaryHen Harrier Circus cyaneus and Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus are open-country birds of prey with overlapping distributions. Although both species face similar conservation threats across their ranges, work to date has largely been undertaken at a national scale with few attempts to collate and assess factors relevant to their conservation at an international scale. Here we use an expert knowledge approach to evaluate the impact of conservation threats and the effectiveness of conservation strategies for each species across Europe. We report results of responses to a questionnaire from 23 Hen Harrier experts from nine countries and 12 Short-eared Owl experts from six countries. The majority of responses for both species reported declines in breeding numbers. The perceived impact of threats was broadly similar for both species: ecological factors (predation, extreme weather and prey availability), changes in land use (habitat loss and agricultural intensification) and indirect persecution (accidental nest destruction) were considered to be the greatest threats to breeding Hen Harrier and Short-eared Owl. Short-eared Owl experts also highlighted lack of knowledge and difficulties associated with monitoring as a major conservation challenge. Despite broad-scale similarities, geographical variation was also apparent in the perceived importance of conservation threats, with some threats (such as direct persecution, large-scale afforestation or habitat degradation) requiring country-specific actions. Implementation of different conservation strategies also varied between countries, with the designation of protected areas reported as the most widespread conservation strategy adopted, followed by species and habitat management. However, protected areas (including species-specific protected areas) were perceived to be less effective than active management of species and habitats. These findings highlight the overlap between the conservation requirements of these two species, and the need for collaborative international research and conservation approaches that prioritise pro-active conservation strategies subject to continued assessment and with specific conservation goals.

中文翻译：

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专家知识评估威胁和保护策略在欧洲繁殖母鸡鹞和短耳猫头鹰

摘要母鸡鹞马戏团和短耳鸮火烈鸟是分布重叠的野外猛禽。尽管这两个物种在其分布范围内都面临着类似的保护威胁，但迄今为止的工作主要是在全国范围内进行的，很少有人尝试在国际范围内整理和评估与其保护相关的因素。在这里，我们使用专家知识方法来评估保护威胁的影响以及欧洲每个物种的保护策略的有效性。我们报告了来自 9 个国家的 23 名母鸡鹞专家和来自 6 个国家的 12 名短耳猫头鹰专家对问卷的答复结果。对这两个物种的大多数反应都报告了繁殖数量的下降。两种物种对威胁的感知影响大致相似：生态因素（捕食、极端天气和猎物可用性）、土地利用的变化（栖息地丧失和农业集约化）和间接迫害（意外巢穴破坏）被认为是繁殖母鹞和短耳鸮的最大威胁。短耳猫头鹰专家还强调，缺乏与监测相关的知识和困难是一项主要的保护挑战。尽管存在广泛的相似性，但地理差异在保护威胁的感知重要性方面也很明显，有些威胁（如直接迫害、大规模植树造林或栖息地退化）需要针对具体国家采取行动。不同国家对不同保护战略的实施也各不相同，据报道，指定保护区是最广泛采用的保护战略，其次是物种和栖息地管理。然而，保护区（包括特定物种的保护区）被认为不如对物种和栖息地的积极管理有效。这些发现强调了这两个物种的保护要求之间的重叠，以及需要进行协作的国际研究和保护方法，优先考虑积极主动的保护策略，并接受持续评估和特定的保护目标。