Post by Deinobrontornis on Apr 17, 2012 15:00:17 GMT -5
Czech researchers find allegedly extinct rat in Philippines
Prague/Dasmarinas (Philippines) - Czech researchers found an allegedly extinct mammal species, the Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat, on Dinagat island in the Philippines and their colleague announced it at a local scientific conference, zoologist Milada Rehakova has told CTK.
The brown rodent with a white end of the tail is known only thanks to one example from Dinagat Island that was described in 1975.
"My husband, programmer Vaclav Rehak, saw a big hairy rat creeping through the vegetation slowly at the beginning of 2012. A week later, we took the first photographs and video recordings (of the rat) in the wild," said Rehakova, who has been researching into the Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta) prosimians in the Philippines since 2007.
The Czech couple documented the rat in the last virgin forest on the island in January.
The Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat (Crateromys australis), which is 55-centimetre-long, including the tail, ranks among the largest rodents in the world. It is a night animal living on trees.
Experts classify six species in two genera, Crateromys and Phloeomys.
The Dinagat rat is critically threatened with extinction. Several scientific expeditions have been searching for it in vain.
Logging and minerals mining are devastating Dinagat and other Philippine islands. There is only one locally protected wildlife area on Dinagat.
This is why scientists, including the Czech couple and experts from the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, are preparing other protection measures along with the local government and the nature conservation office.
Zoologist Pavel Brandl, from the Prague ZOO, said he considers the discovery of the Dinagat rat a great success of the Czech team and good news for the protection of Philippine nature.
"I am looking forward to learning something more about the life of the mysterious rat whose existence has been provoking the imagination of zoologists for several decades," he said.
The Prague ZOO is breeding the Phloeomys pallidus rat species from the north of Luzon island, the largest island in the Philippines, and it has kept its breeding book since 2010.
The discovery of the rare rat is one of the main issues of the ongoing conference of the Wildlife Conservation Society of the Philippines in Dasmarinas.
Prague/Dasmarinas (Philippines) - Czech researchers found an allegedly extinct mammal species, the Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat, on Dinagat island in the Philippines and their colleague announced it at a local scientific conference, zoologist Milada Rehakova has told CTK.
The brown rodent with a white end of the tail is known only thanks to one example from Dinagat Island that was described in 1975.
"My husband, programmer Vaclav Rehak, saw a big hairy rat creeping through the vegetation slowly at the beginning of 2012. A week later, we took the first photographs and video recordings (of the rat) in the wild," said Rehakova, who has been researching into the Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta) prosimians in the Philippines since 2007.
The Czech couple documented the rat in the last virgin forest on the island in January.
The Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat (Crateromys australis), which is 55-centimetre-long, including the tail, ranks among the largest rodents in the world. It is a night animal living on trees.
Experts classify six species in two genera, Crateromys and Phloeomys.
The Dinagat rat is critically threatened with extinction. Several scientific expeditions have been searching for it in vain.
Logging and minerals mining are devastating Dinagat and other Philippine islands. There is only one locally protected wildlife area on Dinagat.
This is why scientists, including the Czech couple and experts from the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, are preparing other protection measures along with the local government and the nature conservation office.
Zoologist Pavel Brandl, from the Prague ZOO, said he considers the discovery of the Dinagat rat a great success of the Czech team and good news for the protection of Philippine nature.
"I am looking forward to learning something more about the life of the mysterious rat whose existence has been provoking the imagination of zoologists for several decades," he said.
The Prague ZOO is breeding the Phloeomys pallidus rat species from the north of Luzon island, the largest island in the Philippines, and it has kept its breeding book since 2010.
The discovery of the rare rat is one of the main issues of the ongoing conference of the Wildlife Conservation Society of the Philippines in Dasmarinas.
