[Animals] They photograph a huge owl that was believed to be extinct for 150 years

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British scientists have rediscovered a giant owl in Ghana that has lurked almost unseen in African rainforests for 150 years.

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Shelley's so-called eagle owl, whose total length can exceed 60 centimeters, was first described in 1872 from a specimen obtained from a local hunter in Ghana by Richard Bowdler Sharpe, curator of the History Museum's collection of birds. Born in London and founder of the Club of British Ornithologists.

There have been no confirmed sightings from Ghana since the 1870s, and very few flashes elsewhere. The only photographs that exist were grainy images taken in 1975 of a captive individual behind bars at the Antwerp Zoo and a pixelated patch from the Congo in 2005 that is certainly not the right species

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There have been occasional reports in recent decades of people who believe they have briefly heard or seen Shelley's Eagle Owl in a few different locations in West and Central Africa, from Liberia to Angola. Most of these sightings are unconfirmed and the species has become a holy grail for bird watchers in Africa and beyond.

This all changed on October 16, 2021 when Dr Joseph Tobias, from the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) at Imperial College London, and his colleague Dr Robert Williams, visited the Atewa Forest in Ghana and saw a huge bird emerging from its resting shelter in broad daylight. "It was so big, at first we thought it was an eagle," Tobias said in a statement. “Fortunately, it landed on a low branch and when we raised our binoculars our jaws dropped. There is no other owl in the tropical rainforests of Africa so large ”.

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The pair only saw the bird perched for 10-15 seconds, but in that time managed to take photos that confirm identification due to its distinctive black eyes, yellow beak, and enormous size, which in combination rule out all other African forest owls.

The fact that a predator of such massive size has become essentially invisible across a large swath of Africa fueled speculation about its current whereabouts and the reasons for its apparent rarity.

Shelley's Eagle Owl is officially classified as vulnerable to extinction with an estimated po[CENSORED]tion of a few thousand individuals. News of its continued survival in Ghana offers new hope for the species.

Although the Atewa site is threatened by illegal logging and bauxite mining, the higher elevations still host large areas of evergreen forest. Environmental groups, such as the Friends of Atewa, are pushing for the area to be designated as a national park.

 

https://elcomercio.pe/tecnologia/ciencias/fotografian-un-enorme-buho-que-se-creia-extinto-desde-hace-150-anos-noticia/