Those who did not see yesterday's Canberra Times or do not receive Emu read
may not have heard of this discovery.
Author: By IAN WARDEN
Publisher: The Canberra Times
Publication: The Canberra Times , Page 6 (Wed 4 Sep 2002)
Two Canberrans have done some intrepid detective work in a remote region of
Indonesia and have proven the existence of a new species of owl. Jerry
Olsen, of the University of Canberra's Applied Ecology Group, and
co-researcher Sue Trost first went to Sumba in Indonesia's Lesser Sunda
chain of islands in 2001 to investigate sightings and hearings of the calls
of a mysterious and much-discussed owl species. They went twice in 2001 and
have just been back again. There had been speculation that this owl was a
known species, either the Sumba Boobook Owl or the Flores Scops Owl, but now
the world of ornithology is rejoicing that it is a hitherto unnamed species.
The story of its definite identification by Mr Olsen and Ms Trost with the
help of a German DNA expert is told in a scholarly way in the new edition of
the ornithological journal Emu. The owl needed a name and Emu declares,
authoritatively, that it is to be called Ninox sumbaensis, the Little Sumba
Hawk-Owl. The scholarly version in Emu can't do justice to the adventures
and the hazards involved for Mr Olsen and Ms Trost. They looked for the owl
in a hard-to-reach place of great heat, mosquitoes, salt-water crocodiles
and of sometimes hostile officialdom.
It is a part of Indonesia where there are still historical fears of slavers
(Dutch slavers operated there in the last century) and some locals ran,
screaming, at the sight of the two pale Australians. Then too there is a
strong belief among locals that owls are used by their enemies to steal the
spirits of family members.
'We had young men race up to villages to protect relatives when they heard
we were in the area,' Mr Olsen said. With the help of a local guide, the
pair played tape recordings of the mystery owls' calls into forests at
night. Then one night two owls called back and, after much waiting and much
tracking by moonlight and torchlight, one of the two came and sat directly
over the two Australians' heads. It was reddish, the size of a quail, and
had loose feathers 'and bright staring eyes, like flat yellow buttons on the
front of its face' Mr Olsen said.
And, very importantly, it had for an owl of its appearance (like the Boobook
owls of our own region) an unusual one-note call and then didn't have the
prominent ear tufts that the 'scops' owls have. The Canberrans' sightings of
the birds and their photographs of them have, with testing done by Professor
Michael Wink, of the University in Heidelberg, shown it to be a new species.
'Given all the scientific conjecture which has been going on for years about
the identity of this little bird, and the dangers associated with mounting
an expedition to Sumba, we got a bit of a thrill out of being the ones to
finally put the mystery to rest,' Mr Olsen said.
____________________________
Alastair Smith
Manager
Law Enforcement Liaison
National Coordinator Child Pornography
Phone: 02 6275 6726
Mob: 0401 993 381
Fax: 02 6275 6996
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