The

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

Mauritius scops owl (''Otus sauzieri''), also known as Mauritius owl, Mauritius lizard owl, Commerson's owl, Sauzier's owl, or Newton's owl, was

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Mascarene The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...

island of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. It is known from a collection of

subfossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

bones from the

Mare aux Songes The Mare aux Songes () swamp is a lagerstätte located close to the sea in south eastern Mauritius. Many subfossils of recently extinct animals have accumulated in the swamp, which was once a lake, and some of the first subfossil remains of dodos w ...

swamp, a detailed sketch made by de Jossigny in 1770, a no less detailed description by Desjardins of a bird shot in 1836, and a number of brief reports about owls, the first being those of Van Westzanen in 1602 and

Matelief Cornelis Matelief de Jonge (c. 1569 – October 17, 1632) was a Dutch admiral who was active in establishing Dutch power in Southeast Asia during the beginning of the 17th century. His fleet was officially on a trading mission, but its true inte ...

in 1606.

Taxonomy

No descriptions of owls were recorded between the mid-17th and the late 18th century. This led to considerable confusion, especially since the bones were referred to ear tuft-less ''

Strix Strix may refer to: * Strix (mythology), a legendary creature of ancient Roman mythology * ''Strix'' (bird), a genus of large "earless" wood-owls * Strix Ltd, manufacturer of kettle controls, thermostats and water boiling elements for domestic ap ...

'' or barn owls, whereas the image and the description unequivocally show the presence of ear tufts. Thus, it was for a long time believed that 2 or even 3 species of owls occurred on the island. The supposed "barn owl" ''Tyto newtoni'' was described from tarsometatarsus bones of what probably was a male individual of this species, whereas the Mauritius owl's type specimen seems to be a bone of a larger female bird. But the bird was neither a ''Strix'' nor a barn owl. Instead, the Mascarene owls of the genus ''Mascarenotus'' were most probably members of the

scops owl Scops owls are typical owls in family Strigidae belonging to the genus ''Otus'' and are restricted to the Old World. ''Otus'' is the largest genus of owls with 59 species. Scops owls are colored in various brownish hues, sometimes with a lighter ...

lineage. The Mauritius bird was the largest species of its genus, with a total length of approximately 60 cm. Its scientific name honors Théodore Sauzier, who made the first bones available for scientific study. In 2018, a DNA study by Louchart and colleagues found that the ''Mascarenotus'' owls grouped among species of ''Otus'' (the scops owls), and therefore belonged to that genus. The cladogram below shows the placement of the Mauritius scops owl:

Extinction

The Mauritius scops owl was the largest carnivore on the island prior to human settlement. Thus, unlike other local species of birds, it was not much affected by the introduction of predators such as cats, rats, and

crab-eating macaque The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the crab-eating macaqu ...

s. In the 1830s, the species seems to have been not uncommonly found in the southeastern part of the island, between Souillac and the Montagnes Bambous due east of

Curepipe Curepipe () also known as ''La Ville-Lumière'' (The City of Light), is a town in Mauritius, located in the Plaines Wilhems District, the eastern part also lies in the Moka District. The town is administered by the Municipal Council of Curepipe ...

, with the last testimony of observations referring to several encounters in 1837. However, as the cultivation of

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

and

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

encroached upon its

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, combined with reckless shooting, it disappeared rapidly. In 1859,

Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...

wrote that the bird was extinct.

References

* Newton, Alfred & Gadow, Hans Friedrich (1893): On additional bones of the Dodo and other extinct birds of Mauritius obtained by Mr. Théodore Sauzier. ''Trans. Zool. Soc.'' 13: 281–302, plate 33: figures 11–18. {{Taxonbar, from=Q616205 Extinct birds of Indian Ocean islands Otus (bird) Bird extinctions since 1500 Birds of Mauritius Birds described in 1893 Extinct animals of Mauritius Species made extinct by human activities Taxa named by Hans Friedrich Gadow Mascarenotus Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN