We discovered a new species of owl – but we already think it’s in danger theconversation com

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Bárbara Freitas, Angelica Crottini, Martim Melo
We discovered a new species of owl – but we already
think it’s in danger
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.
Hidden owls
Otus is the generic name given to a group of small owls sharing a common history,
commonly called scops-owls. They are found across Eurasia and Africa, and include such
widespread species as the Eurasian scops-owl (Otus scops) and the African scops-owl
(Otus senegalensis).
The species epithet bikegila was chosen in homage of Ceciliano do Bom Jesus,
nicknamed Bikegila – a former parrot breeder from Príncipe Island and now a ranger in
Príncipe’s nature reserves. The discovery of the Príncipe scops-owl was only possible

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Ceciliano do Bom Jesus, nicknamed
Bikegila. Martim Melo, Author
provided
thanks to the local knowledge shared by Bikegila
and by his unflinching efforts to solve the long-term
mystery of whether the owl existed. 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.
Otus bikegila has a unique call – 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. This
call was one of the main clues that led to its
discovery.
Otus bikegila’s unique call. Author provided6.21 MB (download)
Even though the Príncipe scops-owl has only now been described by science, genetic
data indicates that it descends from the very first scops-owl species that colonised 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 scops-owl was
rediscovered in 1992, 106 years after its last observation, on Anjouan Island (also known
as Ndzuani) in the Comoro Archipelago. The Flores scops-owl was rediscovered in 1994
– 98 years after it was last reportedly sighted.