New owl species found—and it has a haunting screech
Living only in the old-growth forests of Príncipe Island, the tiny bird is likely already critically endangered, experts say.
Just off Africa’s western coast, there’s a small island known as Príncipe where strange screeches haunt the night.
Not many people have heard the noises, which emanate from the old-growth forests on the southern, uninhabited part of the island. They start just after sunset and sometimes sound like the rasp of an insect, the mewling of a cat, or perhaps the call of a monkey. Locals first noted the squawks back in 1928, but without the means to easily see into the towering forest canopy at night, the sounds have become an enigma.
Today, the mysterious noisemaker has been identified once and for all as a new species of tiny yellow-eyed owl, according to a study published today
