African spotted eagle owl

African Spotted Eagle Owl | Bubo Africanus

Conservation Status	Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) http://www.cites.org/eng/resources/species.html
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Strigiformes
Family:	Strigidae
Species:	Bubo africanus

facts

Height	43 – 50 cm (18 inch)
Mass	480 – 850g
Wingspan	33 cm (13 inch)
Toes	4
Eggs	2 – 3, but can be up to 6 eggs
Eggs Incubation period	32 days
Breeding period	29 - 33 days
Breeding season	July - February

The Spotted Eagle owl (Bubo africanus) is a medium-sized owl, and one of the smallest of the Eagle owls. The facial disk is off-white to pale ochre and the eyes are yellow. It has prominent ear tufts and the upper body is dusky brown, with the lower parts being off-white with brown bars.

The Spotted Eagle owl can easily be mistaken for the Cape Eagle owl. Differences are the yellow eyes, smaller claws and striped legs.

In November 2007 HESC received four African Spotted Eagle owls from a zoo in Johannesburg. Two of them have since been successfully released back into the wild. Unfortunately one of the remaining two had a hanging elbow, which the late Professor Meltzer said could not be repaired. Aswe could not release him, we decided to keep "Spottie" and one of the females at HESC to see if they would breed. At the beginning of last year two chicks hatched and we released them near the Centre in November 2010.

One of them has since paired up with a mate and flown off to set up home elsewhere, while the other continues to hang around the avery just in case an opportunity for a free meal presents itself.

In February 2011 "Spottie" started limping, and upon closer inspection discovered that the bottom part of his foot was in the process of dying off. We rushed him to Dr Scheepers - a veterinarian in Phalaborwa. He told us that "Spottie" had lost the blood supply to the bottom part of his foot. He said one possible reason for this could be that he'd been trying to breed again and the female had bitten him on the leg.

The lower part of his leg had to be amputated, but fortunately the procedure wasn’t life threatening. And since birds adapt quite quickly, the missing limb didn’t seem to bother him too much.

Food and habits

The Spotted Eagle owl's prey consists of small mammals, birds, insects, frogs, and reptiles. It often swallows quite large prey whole, and if the object is really challenging it will pause and rest with its mouth full. Prey that is too large for such treatment will be torn in the normal raptorial fashion. It also tears shreds off to feed nestlings. They male will hunt and bring food when the female cannot leave the nest. Sometimes - even in conditions verging on starvation - he will tear the head off a mouse, but bring the body for the female to feed to the young, or to eat herself if the eggs have not yet hatched. The species is a non-specialised feeder and remains in a given region to hunt for a few weeks or months at a time. It then moves on when the local prey is no longer plentiful or easy to catch. 

The Spotted Eagle owl can be found in several types of habitats, such as light and densely wooded forests, where there are Mopane trees or in the Savanna grasslands where it breeds and feeds, and in the African Bushveld. It is also an urban dweller, being at home in parks, gardens and old, vacated buildings.

Typically it will return at odd intervals of a year or two, depending on local conditions. An adult pair is usually very aggressive in the  defense of its hunting territory, and one obstacle for an adolescent to overcome is to find good feeding grounds where there are no incumbent adults to eject or kill it.

Its calls are typical, musical Eagle owl hoots. Generally the male calls with two hoots, "Hooo hooo" and the female answers with three, with less emphasis on the middle note: "Hooo hoo hooo". The young do not hoot until they reach adulthood, but from a very young age they will hiss threateningly and snap their beaks in a castanet fashion if alarmed.

They continue to make these sounds throughout life, generally in a threatening manner with head down and wings spread sideways to present their upper surfaces in a forward, umbrella-like manner. They might present such behaviour either as a challenge to rival owls or when defending the nest or young against enemies. The young have a whickering call of protest or annoyance when handled. In a comfortable social situation they have a soft croaking "kreeep" that they are prone to repeat every few seconds. If they suspect that they have lost their company, the calls increase in frequency and they are likely to go hunting for their companions.

Conservation

Although the nestlings are easy to tame and make affectionate, companionable pets, it is illegal to capture or keep these owls in most Southern African countries. Feeding them is a demanding task, because they require a well- balanced diet that includes feathers, bones and various tissues, not just meat. Suitably dismembered chicks, rodents, or non-toxic frogs make good food when available. If they are not properly fed the owlets suffer various kinds of malnutrition. And with poor bone formation they are likely to die, and in any case would have no hope of survival in the wild.

Teaching them to hunt and not fixate on humans instead of their own species is no job for novices, however loving or well-intentioned.

Traffic, electric wires, and shortage of suitable prey in populated areas are major causes of mortality, particularly among newly-fledged birds.

Reproduction

Spotted Eagle owls are monogamous, which means that the bird breeds with one partner for life. They are able to breed at around one year of age. They make their nests with figs, straw and leaves. The nest is either placed under a bush to protect the young from predators or built high up in the tree canopy among dense green foliage. Spotted Eagle owls will sometimes make use of a tree cavity just a few meters above the ground. Such holes are normally reused in the next nesting season.

Breeding starts in July and continues into the first weeks of February. The female lays and incubates 1-6 white coloured eggs, leaving the nest only to eat the food the male has food for her. The incubation period lasts approximately 32 days. The young owls can fly at around seven weeks of age. Five weeks after that the young owls leave the nest. They have a life span of up to ten years in the wild and up to twenty in captivity.