Shelley's Eagle Owl ( Bubo shelleyi ) has reappeared. He had not been seen in the African rainforests for 150 years.
The species, nicknamed the "holy grail" of giant owls, had not been formally sighted since the 1870s. While this is not to say that it was not detected by human eyes at the time, this particular sighting is important as It gave the scientists the opportunity to hold an impromptu photo session.
British scientists took a photo of the elusive bird on October 16, Imperial College London announced in a press release.
"It was so big, at first we thought it was an eagle," said Joseph Tobias of Imperial College London. "Fortunately, it landed on a low branch and when we raised our binoculars our jaws dropped. There is no other owl in the tropical rainforests of Africa that large." It measures 60 centimeters.
"This is a sensational discovery," clarified Nathaniel Annorbah of the Ghana University of Environment and Sustainable Development. "We have been searching for this mysterious bird for years in the western lowlands, so finding it here in the foothills of the Eastern Region is a great surprise."
The species is considered vulnerable by the IUCN Red List , which estimates that there are between 1,500 and 7,000 adult individuals in the wild. The population of the species is declining and the main threat to its survival is the deforestation of its habitat for logging and agriculture.
