Tyto glaucops cavatica (Puerto Rican Barn Owl)

[Melanie]

Barnowl known only from sceletal remains from cave deposits on Puerto Rico

[dysmorodrepanis]

Interestingly, locals told (if I'm not mistaken) Wetmore that there were cave-roosting owls still living in 1912. The known owl species from Puerto Rico usually don't use caves.

[sebbe67]

Found be very intresting to find out more about this owl, it wouldent be to suprising if the owl survived into the early 20th.

[another specialist]

* The Puerto Rican Barn Owl, Tyto cavatica, known from prehistoric remains found in caves of Puerto Rico, West Indies, may still have existed in 1912 given reports of the presence of cave-roosting owls.

experts.about.com/e/e/ex/extinct_birds.htm

[another specialist]

Fossils at Blackbone Cave were originally
deposited in owl pellets (Pregill 1981), a few of
which were found still intact. These were
doubtless cast by the extinct barn owl Tyto cavatica
(Wetmore 1920, 1922). This owl was a
very proficient and opportunistic predator, as
may be inferred from the hummingbirds and
swifts, as well as many other species of birds,
bats, insectivores, reptiles, and amphibians, in
the deposits.

elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v099n02/p0230-p0235.pdf

[another specialist]

digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/1299/1/B046a04.pdf

[Melanie]

Order STRIGIFORMES
Family Tytonidae
Tyto cavatica Wetmore
Porto Rican Bam Owl
Tyto cavatica Wetmore, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, December 30, 1920, Vol.
33, p. 80, PI. 3, Figs. 3-6. (Utuado, Porto Rico.) Bull. Amer. Mus.
Nat. Hist., 1922, Vol. XLVI, pp. 321-323, 3 figs. (Utuado).
The extinct Porto Rican barn owl (Tyto cavatica)

From cavern deposits of Cueva Torano.

Porto Rico; extinct.
The Porto Rican barn owl, described from the upper end of a
metatarsus, is known only from the type, parts of another metatarsus, and two broken tibio-tarsi, secured by Mr. H. E. Anthony from a cave on the property of Don Gervacio Torano near Utuado, in 1916. These indicate a form of small size related to the small West Indian species of the genus. The bones of the barn owl in this cave aid in explaining the abundant remains of small birds and mammals found in various caves in Porto Rico. Examination of the bird bones from Cueva Catedral in particular led me to infer that the deposits came from pellets regurgitated by owls at their roosts — a belief rendered certain by the discovery first of remains of the Mucaro (Gymnasio nudipes nudipes) and then of those of this barn owl.
In 1912, while traveling in Porto Rico, I made many inquiries regarding the Porto Rican owl, or Mucaro real (Asio portoricensis) , and found two stories current concerning it. According to one tale, it was found in grassy places or marshes, the normal haunt of short-eared owls (to which group it belongs). Near Utuado, however, I was informed that it inhabited small caves amid the hills and appeared mainly at night. At the time I paid little attention to this story, but am now convinced that it related to the barn owl, since such birds are retiring, secretive in habit and adopt just such haunts. It is barely possible that scattered individuals of the barn owl may exist in isolated caves in the region in question.

Though such possibility is remote, the matter is worthy of investigation by those who may have opportunity to work in that vicinity. The bones that supply our only knowledge of it at present do not seem to have any great antiquity.

Source: Alexander Wetmore Scientific survey of Porto Rico. Birds of Porto Rico and Virgin Islands, 1927.

www.archive.org/stream/scientificsurvey914newy#page/430/mode/2up

[Melanie]

Treated as subspecies in the HBW and BirdLife Illustrated Checklist (2014)

Tyto glaucops cavatica

[surroundx]

Original Description:

Wetmore, Alexander. (1920). Five New Species of Birds from Cave Deposits in Porto Rico. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 33: 77-82.

[Melanie]

Fred Ruhe was so kind and send me the new Zootaxa paper by Suarez and Olson:



Systematics and distribution of the living and fossil small barn owls of the West Indies (Aves: Strigiformes: Tytonidae)
WILLIAM SUÁREZ, STORRS L. OLSON

mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4830.3.4

Here we can read the following:

The main difference between “Tyto cavatica” and T. glaucops cited by Wetmore (1920:80) was that the main hypotarsal ridge is “larger and much longer” in the former. As he noted, however, this feature was not readily apparent in the holotype that he selected but was best observed in the paratypical tarsometatarsus that is now USNM 241263. This specimen is very obviously from a juvenile, however, so that the bone is still porous and evidently in the process of formation. Among more recently collected specimens from Puerto Rico is a complete tarsometatarsus of an adult (USNM 510230) in which the hypotarsus does not differ in size from that of T. glaucops. With regard to size, all of the newer fossil material from Puerto Rico falls exactly in the range of T. glaucops (Table 2–3) and we could detect no differences whatsoever between these two populations. Therefore, we consider “Tyto cavatica” Wetmore, 1920, to be a junior subjective synonym of T. glaucops (Kaup, 1852). The Baudin specimen supposedly from Puerto Rico does not represent Tyto glaucops (see Jansen & Fuchs 2019). Although the Puerto Rican extinct population of T. glaucops may represent a different subspecies from that of Hispaniola, no differences are known at present to justify use the name cavatica in a trinomen for its remains.