According to a paper published in July 2026, the long-eared owl, which lives in narrow grasslands in the high Andes of northern Peru, is a new species to science. journal audio lunis.
The newly described owl species belongs to the genus Owlus. Buboa group that includes more than 10 species of great horned owls and Old World eagle owls.
named Bubo Yarka (common name is Jalka-eared Owl), this bird is Jalka Islandcold, high-altitude grassland and cloud forest habitats are confined to the Huancabamba Depression, a geographic depression in the Peruvian Andes that separates the Páramo ecosystem to the north and the Puna ecosystem to the south.
“Bubo Yarka “It is a particularly rare taxon, or at least a very rare taxon, within its area of occurrence, the cloud forest adjacent to Jalca,” said ornithologist Armando Ugas Scheele of the National University of Piura and colleagues in Argentina and Peru.
“To date, no photographs of this kind are known, which indirectly reflects its uniqueness.”
In feather and body measurements, Bubo Yarka Although essentially indistinguishable from its closest relatives, bubo blacklives in páramo habitats in Ecuador and Colombia.
Researchers say a distinctive feature of the new species is its vocalization.
“Their calls can be distinguished both acoustically and by their phrase structure on spectrograms and oscillograms, which can be useful for diagnosis,” the researchers said.
“It’s called “Jecu!” quickly. Focus on the first syllable instead of the long three-syllable “cus-cún-go” for men. bubo black (with accent on the middle syllable), or the early two-syllable “tu-cú” for both men and women Bubo magellanicus”
The official explanation is Bubo Yarka This specimen is based on a female specimen collected in July 1980 near Cruz Blanca, approximately 33 km by road southwest of Huancabamba and at an altitude of approximately 3,050 m.
The specimen is housed at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, and matching audio recordings of the same individual are archived at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library.
The authors explain: Bubo Haruka Because of its narrow range, it is thought to face serious conservation concerns.
They point to the expansion of pine forests into the Jarka Grassland and deforestation of the adjacent cloud forest.
“Bubo Yarka “As a species with a highly restricted range, it is considered to be facing serious conservation threats, and its survival depends not only on the Jarka (which has recently been increasingly invaded by pine forests), but also on the adjacent cloud forest, which is under threat of imminent deforestation,” the researchers concluded.
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Bernabe López-Lanús others. 2026. Confirmation of new species of owl (Owlidae: Bubo) Endemic to Jalca, Huancabamba Andean Depression, Peru. audio lunis 6:2-53
Source: www.sci.news
