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| A Rajah Scops Owl photographed in Borneo in 2016. It hasn’t had a confirmed sighting again since, but conservationists are hopeful that locals may spot it again. (Photo: Andy Boyce) |
Steeped in natural history, the island of Borneo is a hub of biodiversity that comprises three countries. Its rainforests are estimated to be 130 million years old – double the lifespan of the Amazon – providing a home to thousands of different plant and animal species. The Rajah Scops Owl, a species native to southeast Asia, is one such resident. There are two subspecies of the owl: the Otus brookii solokensis found in Sumatra and the far more elusive Otus brookii brookii of Borneo.
Though the Sumatran subspecies is well documented, almost 130 years have passed since O. brookii brookii, the Bornean subspecies, has been officially sighted. It was first recorded in Sarawak in northwest Borneo in 1892 and in that time, the subspecies has seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. But an unexpected discovery confirming the existence of O. brookii brookii has sparked new interest in finding the owl again.
A rare look
In 2009 a team, led by Thomas Martin and including avian ecologist Andy Boyce, began observing birds and searching for nests in and around Kinabalu Park in Sabah, a Malaysian state in Borneo, as part of a decade-long project. A year in, on May 4, 2016, one member of the group, Keegan Tranquillo, came across an owl which looked distinctly different to others on the site, and quickly alerted Boyce to the unusual individual.
“I was pretty convinced immediately that it was a [Rajah Scops Owl],” says Boyce, who is currently an ecologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “I knew of the owl, I knew that there was a possibility that it should occur somewhere on Mount Kinabalu, but there was no concerted effort to survey specifically for this bird.”
The owl was found roosting about a meter above the ground near a small bank. Boyce and his colleagues made the most of the rare opportunity, snapping as many photos of the individual as they could – the first ever images of O. brookii brookii. Though it may be notoriously difficult to find, once spotted, it is relatively easy to distinguish it from the Mountain Scops Owl that is common in the region, says Boyce. The Rajah species is larger in size and has distinctly orange irises, as well as the small ear tufts characteristic of Scops Owls in general. It also has a speckled brown and black crown.
What’s more, compared to its Sumatran counterpart, O. brookii brookii varies in several ways, raising the possibility that the two subspecies could in fact be entirely separate species. Each has distinct plumage colors and patterns and notably, are found on different islands. This geographical separation favors each population’s potential evolution into different species, and Scops Owls have been known to diverge following isolation in the past.
“In all likelihood, this is probably a separate species given what we know about the biogeography of small owls in that part of the world,” says Boyce. “But we’ve been totally unable to address that using modern methods because there’s been no contact with the bird.”
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