AsianScientist (Oct. 13, 2021) – For the primary time in 125 years, the elusive Bornean Rajah scops owl was noticed within the mountain forests of Malaysia. The rediscovery was reported in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology.
Beneath the biggest owl genus named Otus, the Rajah scops owl solely has two identified subspecies, each of that are native to Southeast Asia. These brown-feathered birds are often called O. brookii brookii on the island of Borneo and O. b. solokensis on Sumatra.
However O. brookii brookii had by no means been documented within the wild since its discovery within the early Eighteen Nineties. Over a century later, the owl’s first-ever pictures emerged when Dr. Andy Boyce from the US’ Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute caught sight of the hen nesting within the forests of Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia.
Not solely was the uncommon sighting a affirmation of the Bornean Rajah scops owl’s existence, nevertheless it additionally sparked a lot extra questions on how precisely it lives. As scientists couldn’t spot or research the Bornean subspecies for the previous century, nearly all identified information in regards to the Rajah scops owl is on the Sumatran subspecies, from vocalization patterns to inhabitants statistics.
Regardless of the ignorance and the rarity of the Bornean subspecies, the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Rajah scops owl as a species of least concern. Given the hen’s distinctive plumage options and habitat, the workforce urged that it could be its personal distinctive species and crucially deserves conservation consideration.
In any case, the area’s archipelagic geography is already identified to advertise fast speciation, with different Otus birds diversifying within the mountain forests the place O. b. brookii was discovered. These areas are additionally threatened by habitat loss resulting from local weather change and deforestation, making the owl’s conservation standing all of the extra necessary to ascertain.
For the researchers, finding out the breeding patterns and distribution shall be key to filling these data gaps. By means of night-time surveys, they hope to file O. b. brookii’s vocalizations and gather blood or feather samples to higher perceive its biology and relationship with the Sumatran subspecies.
“We’re solely good at conserving what we all know and what we identify. If this uncommon hen is endemic solely to Borneo and is its personal species, conservation motion is extra possible,” Boyce stated. “To guard this hen, we want a agency understanding of its habitat and ecology.”
The article might be discovered at: Card et al. (2021) Rediscovery of Rajah Scops-Owl (Otus brookii brookii) on the Island of Borneo.
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Supply: Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute; Photograph: Andy Boyce.
Disclaimer: This text doesn’t essentially replicate the views of AsianScientist or its employees.
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