Environmentalists asked the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service Wednesday to grant protected status to the California spotted owl.

They claim the bird´s old-growth forest habitat is threatened by logging.

Seven conservation groups filed the petition in Sacramento requesting that the spotted owl be listed as endangered under the U-S Endangered Species Act.

The California spotted owl lives in mature and old-growth forests in the state´s Sierra Nevada and southern coastal mountains.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has received the petition and will make a decision whether to protect the species within a year, as required by federal law.