The Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) in Crete (Greece) is a common agricultural species affected by the recent changes in agro-forestry systems. Concrete studies of habitat selection are needed in order to improve our knowledge of its foraging behaviour in managed rural landscapes. In the present study, we analysed the home range size and habitat selection of 11 Long-eared Owls inside olive groves in the plain of central Crete using radio tracking data and remote sensing images. Six nominal scale and 11 landscape scale predictors were used for habitat selection analysis, using a maximum entropy approach. Home range size ranged between 337 and 969 ha while a 52% of home range overlap was observed suggesting that Long-eared Owls do not defend hunting territories. At the nominal scale, distance to potential roosts (trees) was the most important contributor to model performance, followed by vegetation heterogeneity. Furthermore, local heterogeneity of greenness was a better predictor than simply greenness at the presence location. At the landscape scale the amount of habitat openness significantly improved model performance. Incorporating landscape heterogeneity improved habitat selection prediction compared to using only discrete land cover classification. Results of our study pinpoint that although Long-eared Owls exhibit a wide range of habitat tolerance, they prefer mixed habitat conditions avoiding particularly open areas or dense olive plantations. The research has implications in the face of new reforms of European Common Agricultural policy which emphasised the importance of landscape structure in preserving biodiversity in agricultural areas of Europe.

中文翻译：

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地中海农业景观中长耳猫头鹰（Asio otus）的栖息地范围和栖息地选择（希腊克里特岛）

克里特岛（希腊）的长耳鸮（Asio otus）是一种常见的农业物种，受近期农林系统变化的影响。需要对栖息地选择进行具体研究，以提高我们对其在受管理的农村景观中觅食行为的了解。在本研究中，我们使用无线电跟踪数据和遥感图像分析了克里特岛中部平原橄榄林内 11 只长耳猫头鹰的栖息地大小和栖息地选择。六个名义尺度和 11 个景观尺度预测器用于栖息地选择分析，使用最大熵方法。栖息地面积在 337 到 969 公顷之间，而观察到的栖息地重叠率为 52%，这表明长耳猫头鹰不捍卫狩猎领土。在名义规模上，与潜在栖息地（树木）的距离是模型性能的最重要因素，其次是植被异质性。此外，局部绿色异质性是比存在位置的简单绿色更好的预测指标。在景观尺度上，栖息地开放程度显着提高了模型性能。与仅使用离散土地覆盖分类相比，结合景观异质性改进了栖息地选择预测。我们的研究结果指出，虽然长耳猫头鹰表现出广泛的栖息地耐受性，但它们更喜欢混合栖息地条件，避免特别开放的区域或密集的橄榄种植园。