Very Mysterious Owl
As it turns out, that peep was central to the owl’s discovery and classification as a unique species.
Martim Melo, the new study’s lead researcher and a evolutionary biologist at the University of Porto in Portugal, first heard and recorded the distinctive, repetitive call in 2002. Four years earlier, a local parrot harvester named Ceciliano do Bom Jesus (nicknamed “Bikegila”) had told Melo about large-eyed birds living inside tree holes.
After that, the sound recordings were the evidence needed to trigger biological surveys. The calls were unlike that of any other known species.
