Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Mada­gas­car red owls (Tyto sou­mag­nei) are en­demic to the is­land of Mada­gas­car. Pre­vi­ously they were thought to live strictly in the east­ern and north­east­ern parts of the is­land, how­ever a study in 2002 noted two sight­ings of Mada­gas­car red owls in Kalam­bat­ri­tra Spe­cial Re­serve in south cen­tral Mada­gas­car. This ex­tends their pre­vi­ously known range by 500 km to the south. (Bruce, 1999; Irwin and Sa­monds, 2002)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian

• Other Geographic Terms
• island endemic

Habi­tat

Mada­gas­car red owls are known to live and hunt along for­est edges, rice pad­dies, and tavies (areas of de­for­esta­tion due to slash-and-burn farm­ing tech­niques). They have been doc­u­mented to in­habit el­e­va­tions from sea level to 2000 m.

Di­ur­nal roost­ing has been doc­u­mented along rock ledges and cave en­trances. It has also been noted that dur­ing di­ur­nal roost­ing, Mada­gas­car red owls were spot­ted with large leaves cov­er­ing their heads. It has been sug­gested that weather may play a role in di­ur­nal roost se­lec­tion, as the area is known to re­ceive sub­stan­tial rain­fall. (Cardiff and Good­man, 2008; Lan­grand, 1990; Thorstrom, et al., 1997)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• rainforest

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural
• caves

• Range elevation

  Sea level to 2000 m

  to 6561.68 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mada­gas­car red owls are small owls, about a third smaller than com­mon barn owls. One in­di­vid­ual doc­u­mented in 1997 weighed 323 g and had a body length of 27.5 cm. They are or­ange-red in color on the head, back, and stom­ach, though lighter un­der­neath, and are speck­led with black, sooty dots. They also have a short tail and an orangy-white to grey fa­cial disk with black­ish eyes. Males and fe­males are sim­i­lar in ap­pear­ance, as are the ju­ve­niles though young tend to be brighter in color. (Bruce, 1999; Lan­grand, 1990; Thorstrom, et al., 1997)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Average mass

  323 g

  11.38 oz

• Average length

  275 mm

  10.83 in

• Average wingspan

  209 mm

  8.23 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is no known in­for­ma­tion on mat­ing sys­tems for Mada­gas­car red owls. How­ever, their habits are pre­sumed to be sim­i­lar to those of barn owls (Tyto alba). They per­form chas­ing courtship flights, in which the male leads the fe­male. The male will show the fe­male nest­ing sites as well as bring her food. Barn owls form monog­a­mous pairs for life. (El­ph­ick, et al., 2001)

Very lit­tle is known about the re­pro­duc­tive habits of Mada­gas­car red owls, due mainly to their reclu­sive­ness. Only one nest has been de­scribed. It was found in a tree cav­ity 23 m above ground and con­tained two re­cently hatched in­di­vid­u­als that ap­peared to stay in the area for four months. These chicks hatched in Sep­tem­ber and fledged 10 weeks later. In closely re­lated barn owls (Tyto alba), the breed­ing sea­son and brood size de­pends on food avail­abil­ity. In years with abun­dant re­sources, they have been known to lay two clutches. In lean years, clutch size de­creases or some chicks may starve. (Bruce, 1999; Ehrlich, et al., 1988; El­ph­ick, et al., 2001)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Average fledging age

  10 weeks

• Average time to independence

  4 months

No in­for­ma­tion is known about parental in­vest­ment for Mada­gas­car red owls. In closely re­lated barn owls (Tyto alba), the fe­male in­cu­bates the eggs and the male will for­age and feed her dur­ing this time. Owlets are born al­tri­cial, with downy feath­ers and eyes closed. Both male and fe­male barn owls tend the young. (Ehrlich, et al., 1988)

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The lifes­pan of Mada­gas­car red owls is un­known.

Be­hav­ior

Mada­gas­car red owls are noc­tur­nal hunters that en­gage in di­ur­nal roost­ing. They are gen­er­ally found liv­ing alone or in pairs. (Thorstrom, et al., 1997)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• flies
• nocturnal
• motile
• solitary

Home Range

Ter­ri­tory size for Mada­gas­car red owls is un­known.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

They emit a screech that has been recorded to last 1.5 sec­onds. This screech is uti­lized when leav­ing their roost and in re­sponse to other Mada­gas­car red owls. They also have been heard mak­ing a 'wok-wok-wok' sound fol­lowed by a sin­gle, brief, and loud alarm that dif­fers from the pre­vi­ously emit­ted wok sound. Like all birds, Mada­gas­car red owls per­ceive their en­vi­ron­ment through audio, vi­sual, tac­tile and chem­i­cal stim­uli. (Lan­grand, 1990; Thorstrom, et al., 1997)

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Mada­gas­car red owls are car­ni­vores. Ex­am­i­na­tion of pel­lets in­di­cated that their diet con­sists of na­tive in­sects, rep­tiles, and mam­mals in ad­di­tion to in­tro­duced brown rats (Rat­tus rat­tus). 99% of their diet con­sists of prey rang­ing in weight from 12.8 g to 102.7 g. (Cardiff and Good­man, 2008; Good­man and Thorstrom, 1998)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates

• Animal Foods
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• insects

Pre­da­tion

Pre­da­tion has not been doc­u­mented for Mada­gas­car red owls.

Ecosys­tem Roles

Due to their reclu­siv­ity, noth­ing has been recorded re­gard­ing their re­la­tion­ships with other or­gan­isms on Mada­gas­car be­yond their di­etary in­take. Many owls play a sig­nif­i­cant role in pop­u­la­tion con­trol of prey species.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known pos­i­tive ef­fects of Mada­gas­car red owls on hu­mans.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of Mada­gas­car red owls on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Mada­gas­car red owls are con­sid­ered vul­ner­a­ble by the In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture (IUCN), with a de­creas­ing trend in pop­u­la­tion. This is due mainly to de­for­esta­tion that not only de­stroys their habi­tat but the habi­tat of their prey as well. This de­for­esta­tion is the re­sult of com­mer­cial log­ging and un­con­trolled burns as­so­ci­ated with farm­ing. ("Tyto sou­mag­nei", 2010)

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• CITES

  Appendix I Appendix II

Con­trib­u­tors

Bon­nie Gar­cia (au­thor), Florida State Uni­ver­sity, Emily DuVal (ed­i­tor), Florida State Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

In­ter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Na­ture and Nat­ural Re­sources. 2010. "Tyto sou­mag­nei" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed Jan­u­ary 20, 2010 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​143163/​0.

Bruce, M. 1999. Fam­ily Ty­tonidae (Barn-owls). Pp. 34-75 in J del Hoyo, A El­liot, J Sar­ga­tel, eds. Hand­book of the Birds of the World, Vol. 5. Barcelona: Lynx Edi­cions.

Cardiff, S., S. Good­man. 2008. Nat­ural His­tory of the Red Owl (Tyto sou­mag­nei) in Dry De­cid­u­ous Trop­i­cal For­est in Mada­gas­car. The Wil­son Jour­nal of Orn­thi­nol­ogy, 120: 891-897.

Ehrlich, P., D. Dobkin, D. Wheye. 1988. The Birder's Hand­book. New York, NY: Simon and Schus­ter, Inc..

El­ph­ick, C., J. Dun­ning, Jr., D. Sib­ley. 2001. The Sib­ley Guide to Bird Life and Be­hav­ior. New York: Al­fred A. Knopf, Inc..

Good­man, S., R. Thorstrom. 1998. The Diet of the Mada­gas­car Red Owl (Tyto sou­mag­nei) on the Ma­soalo Penin­sula, Mada­gas­car. The Wil­son Bul­letin, 110: 417-421.

Irwin, M., K. Sa­monds. 2002. Range ex­ten­sion of the Mada­gas­car Red Owl Tyto sou­mag­nei in Mada­gas­car: the case of a rare, wide­spread species?. IBIS, 144: 680-683.

Lan­grand, O. 1990. Guide to the Birds of Mada­gas­car. New Haven, CT: Yale Uni­ver­sity Press.

Thorstrom, R., J. Hart, R. Wat­son. 1997. New record, rang­ing be­hav­iour, vo­cal­iza­tion and food of the Mada­gas­car Red Owl Tyto sou­mag­nei. IBIS, 139: 477-481.