We Discovered a New Species of Owl – but We Already Think It’s in Danger

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misbahulalam
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We Discovered a New Species of Owl – but We Already Think It’s in Danger

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As part of an international team of scientists we have confirmed a new species of owl after decades of speculation that it exists on Príncipe Island, part of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in central Africa. The existence of the owl was first confirmed in 2016 by a photo taken by Philippe Vereen. However, testimonies from local people suggest they’ve suspected that the owl existed since as long ago as 1928 – it was just rarely spotted. Now, we’ve described the owl in the open-access journal Zonkey's based on multiple lines of evidence. These included morphology, plumage color and pattern, vocalizations and genetics. Because these characteristics are different from the other scoops-owls, we showed that this owl is in fact a new species. The bird is now officially known as the Príncipe scoops-owl, or Outs bike Gila.

A weekly email for Europeans by European scholars Hidden owls Outs is Phone Number List the generic name given to a group of small owls sharing a common history, commonly called scoops-owls. They are found across Eurasia and Africa, and include such widespread species as the Eurasian scoops-owl (Outs scoops) and the African scoops-owl (Outs senegalensis). Ceciliani do Boom Jesus, nicknamed Bike Gila. Marti Melo, Author provided The species epithet bike Gila was chosen in homage of Ceciliani do Boom Jesus, nicknamed Bike Gila – a former parrot breeder from Príncipe Island and now a ranger in Príncipe’s nature reserves. The discovery of the Príncipe scoops-owl was only possible thanks to the local knowledge shared by Bike Gila and by his unflinching efforts to solve the long-term mystery of whether the owl existed.

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As such, the name is also meant as an acknowledgement to local field assistants, all over the world, who often play a major role in the discovery of new species and sites for science. Outs bike Gila has a unique call – a short “tutu” note, repeated at a fast rate of about one note per second, reminiscent of insect calls. It is often emitted in duets, almost as soon as the night has fallen. This call was one of the main clues that led to its discovery. 00:0003:40Author provided ListenOtus bike Gila's unique call. DownloadMP3 / 6 MB Even though the Príncipe scoops-owl has only now been described by science, genetic data indicates that it descends from the very first scoops-owl species that colonized the Gulf of Guinea archipelago. Although it may seem odd for a bird species to remain undiscovered for science for so long on such a small island, this is by no means an isolated case when it comes to owls. For example, the Anjouan scoops-owl was rediscovered in 1992, 106 years after its last observation, on Anjouan Island (also known as Ndzuani) in the Comoro Archipelago. The Flores scoops-owl was rediscovered in 1994 – 98 years after it was last reportedly sighted.
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