A charismatic owl iconic to Pacific Coast forests is no longer ruling the roost, and scientists now have another tool for understanding its decline. Researchers have assembled the California Academy of Sciences’ first-ever animal genome after sequencing the DNA of the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). In collaboration with the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Academy scientists extensively mapped the bird’s genetic material to better understand how this threatened forest dweller is interacting with non-native owls invading its habitat. Findings are published this month in Genome Biology and Evolution.