Type: journal article

Article abstract: The breeding distribution of western burrowing owl is experiencing an intriguing southward shift, contrary to the predictions of climate change. To determine the breeding dispersal patterns underlying this distributional change, we developed 11 novel polymorphic microsatellite loci for the species. We tested these loci in two burrowing owl breeding populations, one from central Sinaloa, Mexico, and one from the Central Valley of California, USA. All loci were at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, except two loci for the California population. Expected heterozygosity was relatively high (H
E = 0.813, range 0.515-0.942). Average number of alleles was 11.64 (range 5-25). We found no evidence of linkage disequilibrium for any pairwise tests between loci.