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Rodrigues Owl
C6a-0bc5868a
Information
Common Name Leguat's Owl and Rodrigues Little Owl
Range Rodrigues
Scientific Classification
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Aves
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
Genus Mascarenotus
Species Mascarenotus murivorus
Conservation Status
EXSpecies
Extinct

The Rodrigues Owl (Mascarenotus murivorus), also known as Leguat's Owl or (somewhat misleadingly) Rodrigues Little Owl, was a small owl. It lived on the Mascarene island of Rodrigues, but it is nowadays extinct. It is part of the genus of Mascarene owls, Mascarenotus. Like many of the Mascarene land-birds, the genus was a distinct relative to South-East Asian taxa, in this case apparently the Ninox owls of Australasia.

Extinction[]

Regardless of whether Leguat mentioned owls, Tafforet's record is the last reference to this bird. It probably was unable to cope with the ecological alterations and the predation which resulted from the human settlement and the large rat population. The bird became apparently extinct in the mid-18th century; as Rodrigues is quite a small island, it is likely that Pingré would have recorded them in 1761 if they had still been present.

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