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.
Times Online (thanks, Kirsty)
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i’m almost positive you’ve posted this before. where else would i have already heard some crazy info such as this?
It’s nice to know there are still hidden treasures out there in the natural world.
It’s so cute
The rat looks quite ‘human’ and bigger than 3ft, it’s the creature in the background, right ?
now to find the woolly cat that’s the same size as a dog
how did he know it’s a rat, it could be a cat wearing her halloween costume?
Sorry, it’s late, even here in Boston, will stop now, good night
Don’t you mean ‘Newly created woolly rat discovered’? God has started putting out some new animals according to the Onion…
Crikey Derren, this one’s old news now!
thats so cool! I love rats and now there’s ones the size of cats!
from what I’v heard you can’t go to png without finding (or maybe killing) something endangered.
I’m glad the rats here don’t have that size … Would have been nice if our brown rats would have been veggies though .. so that my birds could have played with them.
The volcano sounds cool. Wouldn’t you want one of your own? Without the stinging insects and other not nice creatures that is.
maybe they are cross breeds
Yeh, I’ve deffo read this post before… I wonder if rattus feckinhugus can move as quickly and nimbly as our ratties? If so, that’d be quite terrifying and I’m not even afraid of em!
they should call it a ROUS
That’s a very old story…
That rat is very cute. I caught the video from this report a while back which showed the man in the picture stroking the rat. Discovories like this are always nice.
This isn’t anywhere near Sumatra, is it?
It was a fantastic series, beautiful to look at and interesting in it’s content. The tiny parrots were my fave!
I only joined twitter to follow Gordon Buchanan as a result of watching this TV programme “Lost Land of the Volcano “.His enthusiasm is such a joy.
In video form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YbCqz654jU&feature=related
times article dated sept 7th – I’ve been caught out so many times recently, reading old news articles, that I have developed a habit of looking at the date first.
imagine having one of those rats as a pet
I saw this on TV. It was really tame ’cause it had never seen humans b4. It was practically sitting on the guys lap!!! :O
it´s family of the erm…giant rodent? (cavia) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3120950.stm