New Owls For Old

Suddenly we appear to be hip deep in owls.  News just in from the Philippines breathlessly announced the discovery of ten new species of owls.  Apparently eight are subspecies of existing, known owls but two are completely brand spanking new.  Before we get too excited contemplating our new owl intensive future experts have pointed out that since the owls apparently live on isolated islands or in forest fragments the likelihood is that they're endangered.

That's one hell of a career trajectory, from non existent to endangered in the course of an afternoon.  By the time I've finished writing this they'll probably be extinct.  At least we won't have to update our books on ornithology.  I should probably also mention that nobody has actually seen these owls yet.  They have been identified (or perhaps, extrapolated would be a better word) from listening to owl hoots and picking out the ones we don't recognise.  Thus there is the very real possibility that these "new" owls are actually existing owls with a chest infection.

I also wonder how long these owls have been around.  One could make an argument for saying that they only came into existence when we heard their hoots.  After all if an owl hoots in the forest and nobody hears it does it really hoot at all?  And since hoots are all we have to go on at this point I think that makes a pretty good argument for assuming they materialised out of thin air when there was somebody around to hear them.  On the other hand simply because scientists haven't heard them before doesn't mean nobody has.  This is the way it goes with most "new" animal discoveries.  The locals have generally been aware of them for centuries.  There could well have been conversations around the campfire along the lines of;
"What are we eating"
"Owl"
So these owls could be very venerable indeed.

Still it is a good thing that the existence of these owls is known to a wider audience.  If nothing else it will give environmentalists and other animal lovers something else to worry about.  We never seem to run out of endangered species to fret over.  In fact collectively "endangered species" seem to be some of the most successful animals on the planet, you can find them pretty much anywhere.  Once you're endangered everybody seems concerned about you, possibly being endangered is simply a rather advanced survival technique.  In fact I sometimes wonder if perfectly unthreatened animals are deliberately reducing their numbers just to generate interest in themselves.  Just think about it, not even Greenpeace is worried about the future of cows, but if you're an inch long toad with only two breeding pairs left in the world that can only survive on the underside of rocks in an environment that is just about to be demolished to make way for a shopping mall then everyone will want a piece of you.  Let's face it, humans have done stupider things to gain attention.  Geordie Shore comes to mind for a start.