The Rinjani scops owl (''Otus jolandae'') is a species of

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 ...

found only on

Lombok Lombok is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It forms part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is rou ...

in the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and its neighbouring

Gili Islands The Gili Islands ( id, Tiga Gili hree Gilis Kepulauan Gili

ili Islands Ili, ILI, Illi may refer to: Abbreviations * Irish Life International, part of Irish Life and Permanent * Intuitive Logical Introvert, a personality type in socionics * Influenza-like illness * Iran Language Institute, a state-owned, non-profi ...

are an archipelago of three small islands or Gili island triplets — #Gili Trawangan, Gili Trawangan, #Gili Meno, Gili Meno and #Gili Air, Gili Air — jus ...

. The only bird species

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 island, it was first recognized as a separate species in September 2003 and was formally described in 2013.

Etymology

The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''jolandae'' honours Dr Jolanda Luksenburg, a biologist who codiscovered the species in 2003. Both the English common name and proposed Indonesian name ''Celepuk Rinjani'' refer to

Mount Rinjani Mount Rinjani ( id, Gunung Rinjani) is an active volcano in Indonesia on the island of Lombok. Administratively the mountain is in the Regency of North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (Indonesian: ''Nusa Tenggara Barat'', NTB). It rises to , making ...

, the 3700 m active volcano that dominates Lombok. The owls are also known locally as ''burung pok'', referring onomatopoeically to the call.

Description and identification

As with most other ''Otus'' owls, the Rinjani scops owl is mainly brown in colour, barred and spotted in various shades with white. It is largely similar in appearance to the

Moluccan scops owl The Moluccan scops owl (''Otus magicus'') is an owl found in the Maluku and Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. It closely resembles the Rinjani scops owl. The following subspecies are recognised: * ''O. m. kalidupae'' ( Hartert, EJO, 1903) - ...

, ''O. magicus'', but has a different call, a clean whistling hoot rather than the raspy croak of ''O. magicus''.

History

Seven specimens of the owl were obtained from May to July in 1896 by British naturalist Alfred Everett, who also used paid local collectors. However, at that time, the bird was not recognised as being specifically distinct from the Moluccan scops owl, which occurs on other islands in the Lesser Sundas. The Everett specimens are held in the British Natural History Museum (including the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

) and the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. In September 2003

George Sangster George Sangster is a Dutch ornithologist. He specialises in taxonomy and has written many articles on this subject for the magazines Dutch Birding ''Dutch Birding'', originally subtitled ''Journal of the Dutch Birding Association'', and curren ...

and Jolanda Luksenburg saw, and recorded vocalisations of, scops owls on Lombok. In the same month Ben King did so as well. Both parties independently concluded that the calls differed substantially from those of ''O. magicus'' and other Asian scops owls. In 2008 photographs and more sound recordings were obtained by Bram Demeulemeester and Philippe Verbelen. Another sound recording was obtained in August 2011 by Jan van der Laan. Detailed comparison of the Everett specimens and the later sound recordings with those of other scops owls found in

Wallacea Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated by deep-water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as Lo ...

and the Indo-Malayan region indicated that the Lombok owls constituted a previously undescribed species and provided the basis for the 2013 description.

Distribution and habitat

The Rinjani scops owl is restricted to the island of Lombok where it is the only resident scops owl species. It is locally common within remaining forest habitat on the island, much of which lies within the Gunung Rinjani National Park, at elevations of 25–1350 m.

Threats

Prior to 2018, the Rinjani scops owl was not included on Indonesia's protected species list; however, given that there was no harvest quota in place for the species, it could not be commercially traded. In 2018, the Government of Indonesia revised its list of protected species, which now does include the Rinjani scops owl as a protected species. However, open illegal trade in this species in the bird markets of Lombok has been recorded, and as such, illegal trade should be considered a potential threat to the conservation of this species.

References