A new owl species has been described from Principe Island, which is part of the Democratic Republic of So Tomé and Prncipe in Central Africa. Scientists were able to confirm its existence for the first time in 2016, though people in the area had been saying it existed as early as 1928 and there had been rumors about it since 1998.

Multiple lines of evidence, including as anatomy, plumage color and pattern, vocalizations, and genetics, were used to characterize the new owl species in the open-access journal ZooKeys. An international team led by Martim Melo (CIBIO and the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto), Bárbara Freitas (CIBIO and the Spanish National Museum of Natural Sciences), and Angelica Crottini (also from CIBIO) collected and analyzed the data.

The bird is now called the Otus bikegila or the Principe Scops-Owl.

The collective name “Otus” is used to refer to a family of small owls known as scops-owls that have a shared past. They are common species found in Eurasia and Africa, including the Eurasian Scops-Owl (Otus scops) and the African Scops-Owl (Otus senegalensis).

The scientists who made the discovery also say that the name “bikegila” was chosen to honor Ceciliano do Bom Jesus, also known as “Bikegila,” who used to catch parrots on Prncipe Island and is now a park ranger there.

“The discovery of the Principe Scops-Owl was only possible thanks to the local knowledge shared by Bikegila and by his unflinching efforts to solve this long-time mystery,” according to the researchers. “As such, the name is also meant as an acknowledgment to all locally-based field assistants who are crucial in advancing the knowledge on the biodiversity of the world.”

In the wild, its unique call would be the easiest way to tell it apart. In fact, it was one of the main clues that led to its discovery.

“Otus bikegila’s unique call is a short “tuu” 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,” Martim Melo adds.

A lot of research was done on the whole island of Principe to find out where the new species lived and how many of them there were. The Principe Scops-Owl can only be found in the island’s last remaining patches of old-growth natural forest in the south, which is uninhabited, according to research results published in the journal Bird Conservation International. There, it inhabits a space of roughly 15 km2, perhaps because it prefers lower altitudes. The population of owls in this small region, which is roughly four times the size of Central Park, is believed to number between 1000 and 1500 owls.

Researchers have suggested that the species should be listed as “Critically Endangered” on the IUCN Red List, which is the highest level of threat. This is because all of the species’ members live in this one very small place, which will be changed by the building of a small hydroelectric dam in the near future. IUCN must yet consider this recommendation.

It will be important to keep track of the population to get more accurate estimates of its size and to see how it changes over time. In order to do this, a survey protocol has been made and tested that uses automatic recording units and AI to get the data from these units.

“The discovery of a new species that is immediately evaluated as highly threatened illustrates well the current biodiversity predicament,” add the researchers. “On a positive note, the area of occurrence of the Principe Scops-Owl is fully included within the Príncipe Obô Natural Park, which will hopefully help secure its protection.”

This bird species, the eighth endemic to Prncipe, serves as more evidence of the island’s extraordinarily high level of endemism in the bird kingdom despite its small size of 139 km2.

Despite the fact that a new species of scops-owl has just recently been identified on Prncipe, genetic research suggested that the island was actually probably the first in the Gulf of Guinea to have a species of scops-owl colonize it.

“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,” the researchers write. “For example, the Anjouan Scops-Owl was rediscovered in 1992, 106 years after its last observation, on Anjouan Island (also known as Ndzuani) in the Comoro Archipelago, and the Flores Scops-Owl was rediscovered in 1994, 98 years after the previous report.”

“The discovery of a new bird species is always an occasion to celebrate and an opportunity to reach out to the general public on the subject of biodiversity,” says Martim Melo. “In this age of human-driven extinction, a major global effort should be undertaken to document what may soon not be anymore,” he and his team write in their paper.

“Birds are likely the best studied animal group. As such, the discovery of a new bird species in the 21st century underscores both the actuality of field-based explorations aiming at describing biodiversity, and how such curiosity-driven endeavour is more likely to succeed when coupled with local ecological knowledge, the participation of keen amateur naturalists, and persistence,” they add.

They think that this “new wave of exploration, done by both professionals and amateurs,” will help people reconnect with nature, which is important if we want to stop the global biodiversity crisis from getting worse.

Source: 10.3897/zookeys.1126.87635

Image Credit: Philippe Verbelen

You were reading: A New Owl Species Discovered In Africa And Its ‘Critically Endangered’