Forest owlet

Forest owlet
Forest owlet at Melghat Tiger Reserve
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Athene
Species:
A. blewitti
Binomial name
Athene blewitti
(Hume, 1873)
Current records in red and historic records in grey
Synonyms

Heteroglaux blewitti

The forest owlet (Athene blewitti) is endemic to the forests of central India. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2018, as the population is estimated at less than 1,000 mature individuals. It is threatened foremost by deforestation.[1]

It is a member of the typical owl family Strigidae, and was first described in 1873. As it was not sighted after 1884, it was considered extinct for many years.[2] In 1997, it was rediscovered by Pamela Rasmussen. Searches in the locality mentioned on the label of the last collected specimen failed, and it turned out that the specimen had been stolen from the British Museum by Richard Meinertzhagen and resubmitted with a label bearing false locality information.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b c BirdLife International (2018). "Athene blewitti". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22689335A132251554. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22689335A132251554.en. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  2. ^ Ripley, S. D. (1976). "Reconsideration of Athene blewitti (Hume)". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 73: 1–4.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference rediscovery was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Rasmussen, P. C. & Collar, N. J. (1999). "Major specimen fraud in the Forest Owlet Heteroglaux (Athene auct.) blewitti". Ibis. 141 (1): 11–21. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1999.tb04258.x.