<
https://theconversation.com/we-discovered-a-new-species-of-owl-but-we-already-think-its-in-danger-193996>
"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 Verbelen. 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
ZooKeys based on
multiple lines of evidence. These included morphology, plumage colour and
pattern, vocalisations and genetics. Because these characteristics are
different from the other scops-owls, we showed that this owl is in fact a new
species.
The bird is now officially known as the Príncipe scops-owl, or
Otus
bikegila."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
