Why are cactus ferruginous pygmy owls endangered?

Urban sprawl and its discontents are responsible for the endangered status of the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl [Glaucidium brasilianum cactorum]. One of the owl's two native ranges runs from lowland and central Arizona southwards into the Mexican states of Colima and Michoacan. The other runs from southern Texas southwards into the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Tampulipas.

Both the eastern and western corridors are prime locations of expansion by moneyed interests. One of the immediate costs of such development is the loss of the owl's preferred niches in river bottom woodlands, mesquite bosques, and desert scrub. Within these niches, the owl's preferred nesting sites are on saguaro [Carnegiea gigantea] and organ pipe [Stenocereus thurberi] cactus plants. Both the niches and their respective wildlife feel the effects of the wastes, traffic, pollution, noise, irrigation systems, impervious surfaces, and compacted soils that are part and parcel of uncontrolled business and residential developments.