New species discovered!

[KRonn]

Of course, I imagine that the rats seeing humans for the first time, also think they've discovered a new species as well.   

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6824443.ece

New species of giant woolly rat discovered by BBC film crew

A BBC film crew recording a programme in an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea has discovered a new species of giant woolly rat, a frog with fangs, and around 40 other exotic creatures unknown to science.

Dr George McGavin and his team of biologists were stunned to spot a new species of frog within a minute of setting foot from their helicopter on the rim of the crater of Mount Bosavi.

"It was mind-blowing," said Dr McGavin, the head scientist of the BBC Natural History unit. "Allen Allison, a specialist in amphibians, said, 'I think that's one there over by your foot'. I nearly trod on it."

The woolly rat, which measures nearly 3ft (82cm) in length and weighs more than 3lb (1.5kg), was captured on film in an infrared camera trap set up on the densely wooded slopes.

Provisionally named the Bosavi woolly rat, it is thought to live only in the crater and nowhere else in the world. It has no fear of humans.

"I had a cat and it was about the same size as this rat," said Gordon Buchanan, the cameraman who first observed the creature.

Dr McGavin said the vegetarian rat was incredibly tame: "It just sat next to me nibbling on a piece of leaf. It won't have seen a human before. The crater of Bosavi really is the lost world."

The animal has a silver-brown coat of long, thick fur that probably helps it to survive the wet, cold winters inside the 1,000m high crater walls.

It is thought to belong to the rodent genus Mallomys, which contains other out-sized rat species including another giant woolly rat found in the Foja Mountains of Papua New Guinea by an expedition led by Conservation International in 2007.

Although the Bosavi rat is about five times the size of a brown rat of the genus Rattus that is familiar in Britain, it is dwarfed by other giant rodents elsewhere in the world, such as the South American capybara, which can reach 65kg.

Steve Greenwood, series producer for Lost Land of the Volcano, said that the team clambered down into the crater from the volcano's 2,800m summit in January with the help of local trackers, and spent two weeks filming.

They suspect that they may have catalogued for the first time up to 40 new species, including 16 species of frog, at least three new species of fish, 20 species of insect and spider and one new species of bat.

They saw stick insects the length of a man's forearm, an extremely hairy caterpillar that Dr McGavin hopes to name after Dennis Healey's eyebrows, and butterfies the size of a paperback book.

"Highlights include a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo Grunter, so named because it makes grunting noises from its swim bladder," Mr Greenwood said.

Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist, described how a Bosavi silky cuscus, a fruit-eating marsupial, climbed onto his shoulder.

"I can't begin to describe how it feels to have an animal in my hands that in all probability has never before been seen by science," he said.

"Most biologists would consider it a great achievement to name one new species but at some points on this trip it seemed like everything we were looking at was new. The end of every day was like a massive party. It was very special."

Lost Land of the Volcano goes out on BBC One starting tomorrow night at 9pm. The episode featuring the giant rat will be screened in two weeks' time

[Liep]

Read about this the other day, amazing to think that we still have much to discover.

[Kleves]

Read about this the other day, amazing to think that we still have much to discover.

To discover, and then to inadvertently exterminate.

[HVC]

i want to see the vampire frog.

[Josephus]

Are they extinct yet?

[Valmy]

To discover, and then to inadvertently exterminate.

The only species that will survive are the ones we raise for food...and then PETA will make us all vegetarians and we will exterminate them to.

[Sheilbh]

The BBC Natural History unit is worth the license fee.  I love these shows

[HVC]

To discover, and then to inadvertently exterminate.

The only species that will survive are the ones we raise for food...and then PETA will make us all vegetarians and we will exterminate them to.

nah, we'll keep the cute ones alive too. unless they have the unfortunate habit of living where we like to live, in which case we'll pave over them in our pursuit of more strip malls.

[Caliga]

i want to see the vampire frog.

Dude, did you know that there are vampire moths?  I just found that out myself a few months back. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Are they extinct yet?

Give the Republicans time to work their way there.

[Ed Anger]

More varmits to kill.

[DisturbedPervert]

i want to see the vampire frog.

Yeah that's bullshit mentioning a fanged frog and not showing a picture of it.

[Savonarola]

i want to see the vampire frog.

Yeah that's bullshit mentioning a fanged frog and not showing a picture of it.

[HVC]

i want to see the vampire frog.

Dude, did you know that there are vampire moths?  I just found that out myself a few months back. 

actual blood suckers, or moths with fang like apendages?

[KRonn]

Sav, good one!   

I guess the jungles and mountains in New Guinea are so thick, dense and remote that it's not too much a surprise that new species are discovered there.