LONDON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- British barn owls are becoming increasingly dependent on humans, with three-quarters of the country's owls living in man-made nest boxes, conservationists say.

The barn owl population has been boosted by nest box installation programs, but the birds are now largely reliant on such measures, the BBC reported.


The British people have become the barn owls' custodians, the U.K.-based World Owl Trust says.

And without the nest boxes and other ongoing conservation efforts, the once-common birds could become increasingly rare, the group says.

Between the 1930s and 1980s, their numbers fell from 12,000 breeding pairs to approximately 4,000, a 70-percent decline.

In the 1980s regional and national projects including the Barn Owl Conservation Network were set up to help the birds.

The BOCN and British Trust for Ornithology say that decline has been halted and even reversed in some areas.

"We almost lost them, but now it's looking hopeful," says the BOCN's Colin Shawyer.