‘Lost’ for 30 Years, This Giant Woolly Rat Just Showed Up in the Wild

Tendency of animals to become extinct or lost in thought They can be revivedBut it sure is actually cool Prove that they still exist. And the rediscovered giant woolly rat is an animal as glorious as nature.

Dr. in a research paper published in April MammalsCzech researcher František Vejmělka shared the first photo Malmis Istapantapor the subalpine woolly rat—an elusive animal that has existed in scientific limbo for decades. of 1989 Registration of fauna was based entirely on archival data and skull collections in museums.

No one has actually collected photographic or visual data to prove the animal’s existence outside of historical records, leaving researchers wondering if it is still in the wild. As Vejmělka found, fur rats still survive in their natural habitat in New Guinea.

“It’s surprising that such a large and fascinating animal is so poorly studied – despite its size and how amazing this animal is, there were no pictures of it,” Vejmelka said. The Times In June

A wild discovery

This was extremely difficult to come by, Vejmělka admits releaseadding that “had it not been for the indigenous hunters who accompanied me in the mountains and helped me identify the animals, I would never have been able to collect this information.”

In fact, the woolly mouse lived deep in the rainforest of Mount Wilhelm, a nearly 15,000-foot-high (4,509 m) mountain with little or no hiking tracks. The area was also home to several aboriginal (human) tribes who were understandably wary of uninvited visitors.

Eventually, he and his team manage to form a collaboration with local hunters, who allow Vejmelka to join them on their nightly hunts. It was during one of these hunts that Vejmelka was able to locate and capture the rat, which the locals called Mosak or “man-biter”.

It has to be seen to be believed

The paper presents data for the first time on the woolly rat’s diet, behavior patterns and general aspects of its lifestyle. Specifically, fur rats are about 3 feet (85 cm) long and weigh about 5 pounds (2 kilograms). It is nocturnal, climbing trees at night using its sharp claws to peck on trees. In addition to documenting rodents, the team collected data on 61 species of non-flying mammals native to the region.

But the encounter also revealed some discrepancies between the museum’s collection and the actual rat population. The supposed “rarity” of the rat appears to be connected “only to the remoteness of the habitats it occupies,” Vejmelka wrote in the paper, “and the reliability with which we have identified the species locally calls into question their rarity in nature compared to scientific collections.”

Simply put, field operations are really critical; The more we doubt the persistence of a particular species—not just this particular mouse, he says, “how much more is there to discover about the biodiversity of tropical mountains?”