A lost bird Everything we know for certain about the Itombwe owl comes from just two individuals: one dead for more than 70 years, and the other also most likely dead by now. The second, a small, chestnut-colored owl, was netted by Tom Butynski’s team in 1996; a wild owl can expect to live 10 years. Butynski tells Mongabay they held onto the bird for just about an hour, releasing it after measuring, weighing and tagging it. Little did they realize back then the significance of this fleeting encounter: It was the last confirmed sighting of the species to date. Yet experts say they’re hopeful the Itombwe owl (scientific name Tyto prigoginei, but also commonly referred to as Phodilus prigoginei) flies on quietly — beyond researchers’ radar — in the face of possible extinction. Out in the wild, researchers say a few thousand may survive in a tiny pocket of Central Africa. Itombwe Nature Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the bird’s last known location, and the 1996 expedition was one of the last expansive surveys of the Itombwe massif, a mountainous mosaic of grassland, bamboo vegetation and forests. Butynski’s team also took photos of the owl, which they sent to Michel Louette at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (now AfricaMuseum) in Tervuren, Belgium. Louette, who was in charge of the museum’s bird collection, confirmed it was the Itombwe owl. Photograph of the Itombwe owl captured by Tom Butynski and colleagues in 1996. Image Courtesy of Tom…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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