The Rodrigues scops owl (''Otus murivorus''), also known as Rodrigues owl, Rodrigues lizard owl, Leguat's owl, or (somewhat misleadingly) Rodrigues little owl, was a small
owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
. It lived on 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
Rodrigues, but it is nowadays
extinct. It is part of the three
Mascarene owls, formerly classified in the genus ''Mascarenotus'', although they are now classified in the genus ''
Otus
Otus may refer to:
* Otus (education), a K-12 educational technology company
* HMS ''Otus'', two ships in the Royal Navy
* ''Otus'' (bird), genus of owls
* Otus (mythology), giant in Greek mythology, brother of Ephialtes, one of Aloadae
* Otus ...
''. Like many of the Mascarene land-birds, the genus was a distinct relative to
South-East Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
n taxa, in this case apparently being a descendant of the direct ancestor of the
Oriental scops owl. This insular scops owl had evolved gigantism, becoming twice as large and four times heavier than its continental ancestor.
[Duhamel, A. ''et al''. (2020) Cranial evolution in the extinct Rodrigues Island owl ''Otus murivorus'' (Strigidae), associated with unexpected ecological adaptations. ''Scientific Reports'', 10:14019.]
Taxonomy
![Rodrigues owl leg bones](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Rodrigues_owl_leg_bones.jpg)
It is sometimes assumed that
Leguat mentioned this bird in his 1708 memoir, but this seems to be in error;
Julien Tafforet gave a good description in 1726, however. The Rodrigues bird, which Tafforet compared to the ''petit-duc'', the
Eurasian scops owl
The Eurasian scops owl (''Otus scops''), also known as the European scops owl or just scops owl, is a small owl in the typical owl family Strigidae. Its breeding range extends from southern Europe eastwards to southern Siberia and the western Him ...
(and not, as often assumed to the
little owl, the ''chouette chevêche''), was more arboreal than its congeners and fed on small birds and "lizards" (small specimens of the
Rodrigues day gecko
The Rodrigues day gecko (''Phelsuma edwardnewtoni''), also known Common name, commonly as the Rodrigues blue-dotted day gecko, is an extinct species of day gecko, a lizard in the Family (biology), family Gekkonidae. The species was Endemism, ende ...
and the
Rodrigues giant day gecko
The Rodrigues giant day gecko (''Phelsuma gigas'') is an extinct species of day gecko. It lived on the island of Rodrigues and surrounding islands and typically dwelt on trees. The Rodrigues giant day gecko fed on insects and nectar, and, unlike ...
). A monotonous call was given in good weather.
Considering the bird's likely relationships as evidenced by the
subfossil bones discovered later, and the detailed description of the related
Mauritius scops owl, the Rodriguez bird was as large as a good-sized
Australian boobook, with females reaching the size of a
long-eared owl
The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook o ...
, and had ear tufts like an ''Otus'' owl and nearly naked legs.
In the original description,
Milne-Edwards referred the bones to a ''
Strix'' owl, mistakenly assuming that Tafforet had described a species of the tuftless owl genera. One larger
tibiotarsus
The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia.
A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These s ...
was assigned by him to the same sort of bird, but not described further.
Günther &
E. Newton, in their discussion of additional bones, quite logically assigned this bone to a female of this species, given that the small size of the island seems to preclude two competing similar species of owl to coexist.
Rothschild
Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...
, however, described the larger bone as type of what he assumed was a miniature
eagle owl
The American (North and South America) horned owls and the Old World eagle-owls make up the genus ''Bubo'', at least as traditionally described. The genus name ''Bubo'' is Latin for the Eurasian eagle-owl.
This genus contains 19 species that ar ...
, ''Bubo leguati''. It is nowadays accepted that the assignment to sex by Günther & Newton was correct.
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 Rodrigues owl:
Description
Tafforet's description of the bird reads as follows:
Extinction
Regardless of whether Leguat mentioned owls, Tafforet's record is the last reference to this bird. It probably was unable to cope with the ecological alterations and the predation which resulted from the human settlement and the large
rat population.
The bird became apparently extinct in the mid-18th century; as Rodrigues is quite a small island, it is likely that
Pingré would have recorded them in 1761 if they had still been present.
References
* Milne-Edwards, Alphonse (1873): Recherches sur la faune ancienne des Îles Mascareignes. ''Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. (Paris)'' 5(19), Article 3.
rticle in French''Note:'' Usually, the year of publication is given as 1874. However, although the volume was nominally of that year, it was already released in 1873.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q542326
Otus (bird)
Extinct birds of Indian Ocean islands
Bird extinctions since 1500
Fauna of Rodrigues
Birds described in 1873
Mascarenotus
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN