Red owl
| Red owl | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Strigiformes |
| Family: | Tytonidae |
| Genus: | Tyto |
| Species: | T. soumagnei |
| Binomial name | |
|
Tyto soumagnei (Grandidier, 1878) |
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The red owl (Tyto soumagnei) is an owl in the barn owl family Tytonidae. It is also known as the Madagascar red owl, Madagascar grass-owl and Soumange's owl. It is a rare resident of Madagascar that was virtually unknown from its discovery in 1876 to its rediscovery by researchers from the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1993. It is currently listed as vulnerable because of habitat loss, but recent studies have determined it may have a wider range than believed, though further research in distribution and ecology is required. It has possibly been overlooked because of its close resemblance to the closely related barn owl.
The red owl resembles the cosmopolitan barn owl but is smaller (27–30 cm) and has rich orange plumage with small black spots. It is known to live in humid evergreen forest and dry deciduous forest in the east of the island, being found in primary forest and in disturbed secondary forest (possibly even human altered open areas). It feeds on native small-mammals like tenrecs (Tenrecidae) and tuft-tailed rats (as opposed to the barn owl, which feeds on introduced species). It nests and roosts in tree cavities and along cliffs with dense vegetation.
The red owl is an orange-red color with small black spots and a dark grey/brown facial disk. Eyes are typically a sooty black color, the beak is a pale grey, and the cere (a fleshy patch at the base of the upper mandible of the beak) is flesh colored. Feet are a smoke grey color. One individual collected was measured: weight of 323 grams, body length of 275 mm, unflattened wing-length of 209 mm, tail length of 100 mm, tarsus-length of 56.6 mm and width of 6.0 mm, and a beak length from the cere of 11.6 mm.
The diet of the red owl has been determined from pellets and observation. They feed mostly on small mammals of families Tenrecidae and Muridae that are native to the island. Prey species include insects, frogs, geckoes, tenrecs, afrosoricidians (Microgale spp., Oryzorictes hova), rodents (Eliurus spp., Rattus rattus), and the eastern rufous mouse lemur (Microcebus rufus). All species are native to Madagascar except the roof rat (Rattus rattus). In one sampling of pellets, Tsingy tufted-tailed rats were 50% of the total prey mass of red owls in Ankarana. There is little to no evidence that red owls consume frogs in the wild, as they appear to prefer small mammals, but they will frequently eat frogs in captivity. Most of the prey species inhabit forests or can be found on the forest edge and in disturbed habitats.
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Wikipedia