topic: Rodents

topic: Rodents

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From rat-ridden to reserve, Redonda is an island restoration role model
- In 2016, conservationists began restoring the island of Redonda, part of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean, by removing invasive rats and goats.
- Shortly after removing these invasive species, vegetation on the island sprang back to life, and seabirds and other wildlife recolonized the island.
- In September 2023, the government of Antigua and Barbuda announced it had established the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve, covering nearly 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land and sea.
- Experts say they hope Redonda’s restoration and successive protection will be used as a model for similar projects across the Caribbean.

NASA satellites reveal restoration power of beavers
- A new partnership between NASA and researchers is measuring the impact of beavers reintroduced to landscapes in Idaho.
- Beavers are one of the world’s most powerful ecosystem engineers, building new habitats by slowing water flow and reducing flooding, while also boosting biodiversity.
- Beavers are all the more important in an age of rapid climate change, as they produce wetter and more resilient habitats, even in the face of wildfires.
- “NASA is interested in how satellite Earth observations can be used for natural resource management,” a member of the space agency’s Ecological Conservation Program tells Mongabay.

S. Africa to purge bird-eating mice from key albatross breeding island
- Non-native house mice arrived on Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean two centuries ago, when the island was a stopping-off point for sealing ships.
- Their population has exploded recently, as temperatures warm and summers lengthen. With more mouths to feed, they’ve gutted their main food source — insects — and are now feeding on seabird chicks and adults.
- While mouse attacks on seabirds remain low and their impact on nesting or breeding success isn’t known yet, conservationists nevertheless see them as a serious and growing threat.
- Now the South African government is planning a rodent eradication program for mid-2025 that will be the largest of its kind on a sub-Antarctic island.

Ukrainian biologists fight to protect conservation legacy
- As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues into a second year, conservation biologists have been forced to implement new solutions to protect their country’s conservation legacy.
- Dangerous conditions have made it difficult to go afield and survey threatened species such as the sandy blind mole-rat, the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, wetland birds and native plants, so finding ways to work away from field sites and conservation areas, has become key.
- Missile strikes, fires and thefts have threatened both digital and physical conservation data, spurring the scientific community to digitize and upload as much information as possible to an international biodiversity database.
- So far, 310,600 records have been added to the database, and physical assets like Kherson’s entire herbarium have been moved to safety in western Ukraine.

‘Grumpiest cat’ leaves its calling card on the world’s highest mountain
- The presence of the manul, a cold-adapted wild cat the size of a domestic cat, has been confirmed on the slopes of the world’s highest mountain, thanks to scat samples retrieved from there in 2019.
- The confirmation by DNA testing marks the first time the elusive cat has been formally recorded in Nepal’s eastern Himalayan region.
- The first confirmed sighting of the manul, also known as Pallas’s cat, in Nepal came in 2012, in the country’s western Himalayan region.
- Conservationists say the latest finding can help inform conservation actions for the species, including the protection of its prey.

Invasive rats topple ecological domino that affects reef fish behavior
- A recent study reveals that the presence of invasive rats on islands can lead to behavioral changes in fish living on coral reefs offshore. A team of scientists found that damselfish have larger territories that they defend less aggressively on reefs near rat-infested islands.
- Rats and other rodents often tag along on ships. For hundreds of years, they’ve colonized islands around the world, where they feast on seabird chicks and eggs, decimating local populations.
- Seabirds deposit nutrient-rich guano on islands, some of which flows out to reefs and fertilizes the growth of algae.
- Smaller seabird numbers on rat-infested islands mean that fewer nutrients end up on reefs, and the algae there has lower nutritional value than off rat-free, seabird-rich islands. The study’s authors concluded that damselfish were less aggressive near islands with rats because it wasn’t worth the energy to defend a less valuable resource.

Rat killers in paradise: An eradication program remakes a tropical atoll
- Like many islands around the world, Tetiaroa Atoll in French Polynesia has been overrun by rats and other invasive species that profoundly affect its terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
- In July, the paradisiacal 12-island atoll was declared rat-free after years of concerted efforts to wipe out the predators.
- Scientists have been studying the atoll’s plants, seabirds, insects, lizards, crabs, coral and algae, establishing a uniquely comprehensive ecological baseline to better understand how the rat eradication will affect the atoll — and others like it.

Study assesses wildlife exposure to rat poison on oil palm plantations
- Rodents can pose a financial risk to oil palm plantation managers as they can cause significant damage to crops, potentially reducing yields by up to 10%.
- Anticoagulant rodenticides are often used to eradicate or manage rodent populations.
- A recent study assessed the risk of exposure to wildlife species known to hunt on palm plantations.
- Little is known about exposure and the potential risk to a wide variety of species, the study warns, and more research is needed to fill these knowledge gaps.

Seeing the maligned urban rat in a new light: Q&A with Michael Parsons
- Despite tens of thousands of papers on lab rats, rat scholar Michael Parsons say we know next to nothing about their relatives that inhabit our cities: the urban, wild rat.
- Recent research shows that not only are rats clever, but they have a sense of justice and are sentient organisms.
- Parsons argues that rat issues in urban areas should be dealt with by cleaning up the city, instead of acting reactively and often cruelly.

New study shows where to focus efforts to save long-neglected small mammals
- Two small mammal groups — Rodentia (like mice, beavers, squirrels) and Eulipotyphla (like shrews, moles and hedgehogs) — together contain nearly half of all known mammal species.
- A new study provides an updated picture of where all of the globally threatened species from the two groups occur.
- The study also identified regions that are home to rodents and eulipotyphlans currently classified as data deficient or DD — species whose conservation status we simply don’t know.
- The authors say they hope the study will not just get people excited about working with small mammals, but also encourage funders to invest in conservation or research projects focusing on these long-neglected but species-rich animal groups.

Black Death aside, we know surprisingly little about rodents and disease
- Rodents make up 40% of all mammal species on the planet, and an estimated 10.7% of them are known hosts of zoonotic diseases, such as cat scratch disease, bartonella, hantavirus, Lyme disease, leishmaniasis, leptospirosis, and the plague.
- A recent letter in the journal Conservation Biology calls for more attention and funding to be directed toward studying small rodents, “the wildlife species most likely to be abundant, come into contact with humans, and be potential reservoirs in future zoonotic outbreaks.”
- Controlling and mitigating the risk of zoonotic diseases through rodent control is another area that lacks research, with the current approach of killing and poisoning rodents in urban areas actually posing the risk of causing more disease.
- Experts call for evidence-based, whole-system approaches to control rodents and champion the One Health approach to address zoonotic disease, acknowledging that human, environmental, and animal health are all interconnected.

Hantavirus study shows restoring forests can reduce zoonotic disease risk
- Brazilian scientists have found that transmission of hantavirus, a deadly infection, could be reduced by 45% if Brazil restores its Atlantic Forest to levels mandated by its Native Vegetation Protection Law.
- Hantavirus, spresd by contact with infected rodents, can become more prevalent across a landscape when forests are cleared and rodent populations increase.
- While the study’s simulations must be confirmed by field studies, this initial research shows that lowering zoonotic disease risk through forest restoration holds promise.

On a Philippine volcano, an eruption-proof mouse rules the roost
- In 1991, a massive eruption at Mount Pinatubo decimated natural old-growth forests, likely resulting in the natural local extinction of several species, a study notes.
- But surveys carried out 20 years after the eruption show that the landscape is regenerating and is dominated by a possibly endemic rodent species, Apomys sacobianus.
- Biologists know Ap. sacobianus from a single specimen collected in 1956; previous studies conducted by the team show it may be specific only to Mount Pinatubo.
- The rodent species is a “disturbance specialist,” meaning that unlike other Apomys species that thrive on mountaintops, Ap. sacobianus has adapted to living in the lowlands due to eruptions in the past.

The queen sets the tone: Deciphering the dialects of naked mole-rats
- Naked mole-rats have their own dialects that differ between colonies of the rodents, researchers have found.
- The virtually blind animals communicate underground through squeaks, grunts and chirps, and have an “accent” that is determined by the queen of each colony.
- This shared dialect “strengthens cohesion and a sense of belonging among the naked mole-rats of a specific colony,” says Alison Barker, lead author of the new study.
- The finding has important implications for the understanding of our own history, by potentially shedding light into how human linguistic culture evolved.

Audio: Environmental justice and urban rat infestations
- Today we speak with Dawn Biehler, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, whose research focuses on the history and public health impacts of rats and other pest species in Baltimore.
- The issue of urban pests like rats in Baltimore has been in the news lately due to tweets sent by US President Donald Trump about the city being “rat and rodent infested.” Trump isn’t the first American politician to use this kind of rhetoric to target communities that are predominantly made up of people of color, while ignoring the fact that policies deliberately designed to marginalize communities of color are at the root of the pest problems in many cities.
- Biehler, who is also the author of the 2013 book Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats, joins us on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast to discuss how rat infestations in cities are actually an environmental justice issue and how they can be dealt with in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Those kicks were fast as lightning: Kangaroo rats evade deadly snake strikes
- A research team has shown that desert kangaroo rats fend off predatory rattlesnakes through a combination of speedy reaction times, powerful near-vertical leaps, and mid-air, ninja-style kicks.
- Locating snakes through radio tracking and filming snake-kangaroo rat interactions with high-speed video cameras enabled the team to analyze strike and reaction speed, distance and angle the rats moved to avoid being bitten, and aspects of the impressive maneuverability displayed by most kangaroo rats in the recordings.
- About 81 percent of recorded snake strikes were accurate, yet the snake actually bit the kangaroo rat in just 47 percent of the strikes and latched on long enough in just 22 percent of strikes to actually kill and eat the kangaroo rat.
- The slowed-down videos demonstrate the importance of kangaroo rats’ physical features, including long tails and powerful legs, and mid-air maneuverability in escaping predation.

In the Solomon Islands, making amends in the name of conservation
- The Kwaio people of the Solomon Islands have been working with scientists to protect their homeland from resource extraction and development.
- But violent clashes in 1927 between the Kwaio and the colonial government created a rift between members of this tribe and the outside world.
- To heal those old wounds and continue with their conservation work, a trio of scientists joined the Kwaio in a sacred reconciliation ceremony in July 2018.
- Kwaio leaders say that the ceremony opened the door to a more peaceful future for their people.

Podcast: Beavers matter more than you think
- We discuss one of the world’s most overlooked keystone species, the beaver, on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast.
- Environmental journalist and writer Ben Goldbarb is a big proponent of giving beavers far more attention than they’re paid. His latest book is fittingly called Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.
- Today, the North American beaver population is on the rebound thanks to conservationists who are helping bring this keystone species back to habitat across the continent. Goldfarb tells us all about these efforts and just why beavers’ role as “ecosystem engineers” is so crucial.

Plant communities roar back after rat removal from Pacific islands
- In a multi-year study, scientists found that tree seedlings were more than 5,000 percent more abundant after rats were eradicated from Palmyra Atoll, a group of 25 small islands in the Pacific Ocean.
- Invasive rats, brought by ships over the past few centuries, eat tree seedlings and vegetation, in addition to driving down seabird numbers.
- Managers eradicated the islands’ rats in 2011, and within a month, seedling densities had increased.

Coral reefs thrive next to rat-free islands, new study finds
- A team of ecologists examined the impacts that invasive rats on tropical islands have on coral reef ecosystems.
- Because rats eat seabird eggs and young, they can decimate seabird populations.
- With fewer seabirds depositing their guano on islands, coral reef ecosystems near rat-infested islands can’t support as much life.
- The findings suggest that eradicating rats from tropical islands could be a straightforward way of bolstering the health of coral reefs.

How an island of mice is changing what we know about evolution
- Researchers have identified the smallest-known island where multiple species of mammals evolved from a single founding species. The Philippine island of Mindoro is the size of Yellowstone National Park and host to four species of earthworm mice.
- Genetic analysis indicates all members from these four species descended from just a few individuals that rafted to Mindoro from a neighboring island millions of years ago.
- Three of the species are endemic to Mindoro, and the researchers believe they evolved on different mountains. The study’s findings highlight the pivotal role mountains can play in speciation, and provide evidence that evolution can occur even in small areas.
- The researchers say this underlines the importance of protected areas not just for species preservation, but for species emergence as well. The apparent success of such a small founding population may also give hope for species currently hovering on the precipice of extinction.

Camera trap videos capture biodiversity of conservation area in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula
- Many ejidos, such as Ejido Caoba in the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatán Peninsula, run sustainable forestry enterprises on their land, harvesting and selling wood for the benefit of the entire community and replanting the trees they cut down in order to ensure the health of the ecosystem as a whole.
- One way to measure how well an ecosystem has been maintained is through the levels of biodiversity the land is capable of sustaining — and by that measure, Ejido Caoba’s efforts to preserve the ecosystem appear to be quite successful, as the camera trap videos below suggest.
- After this year’s harvest of timber and non-timber forest products comes to an end, the ejido will once again install the camera traps in harvest areas in order to continue monitoring wildlife populations on their land. But for now, you can enjoy these videos captured in November and December 2017.

Efforts to save island wildlife from extinction get a boost from new database
- Though the approximately 465,000 islands on planet Earth represent just over five percent of total global land area, they are disproportionately rich in threatened biodiversity — and researchers have now identified which are the most important to protect from invasive species, a major driver of species extinction on islands.
- Researchers found that there are 1,189 “highly threatened” vertebrate species — 319 amphibians, 296 birds, 292 mammals, and 282 reptiles listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — that breed on 1,288 of the world’s islands.
- Conservation interventions like prevention, control, and eradication of invasive vertebrates could benefit 41 percent of the world’s highly threatened terrestrial vertebrates that are largely confined to islands, the researchers determined.

Photos: Top 20 new species of 2017
- There’s still so much we don’t know about life on planet Earth that scientists discover new species with whom we share this planet nearly every day.
- For instance, this year scientists described a new species of orangutan in Sumatra — just the eighth great ape species known to exist on planet Earth. And that’s just one of many notable, bizarre, or downright fascinating discoveries made this year.
- Here, in no particular order, we present the top 20 new species discovered in 2017.

Giant tree-dwelling rat discovered in the Solomon Islands
- The Uromys vika is the first new rodent species to be described from the Solomon Islands in 80 years.
- The elusive rat was finally discovered when an 18-inch, orange-brown individual fell out of a tree that had been cut down by a logging company.
- The researchers think that the rat should be listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List because the rat appears to be rare, and its rainforest habitat is rapidly being logged away.

From tarsiers to cloud rats, scientist strives to save Philippine species
- In this interview, Milada Rehakova shares how she and her husband rediscovered the bushy-tailed cloud rat, previously thought extinct, on Dinagat Island in 2012.
- Rehakova is currently working with local allies to establish the first protected areas on Dinagat Island to protect the cloud rat and tarsiers among other species.
- Rehokova is also working to save the tarsiers of Bohol from an exploitative tourist trade.

Hunting, not deforestation, biggest threat to Southeast Asian biodiversity: Study
- The authors of the study, published last month in the journal Conservation Biology, examined the impacts of hunting on vertebrate populations in the region by conducting an extensive review of scientific papers in local journals and reports of governmental and nongovernmental agencies.
- They found evidence that animal populations have declined sharply at multiple sites across Southeast Asia since 1980, with many species now completely wiped out in substantial portions of their former ranges.
- The authors of the study argue that, in addition to improved enforcement measures and better management of protected areas, efforts to engage hunters and manage wildlife populations through sustainable hunting practices are urgently needed.

In search of a lost species: the Santa Marta Toro
- Nicolette (Nikki) Roach, a PhD Student at Texas A&M University, is on a mission to find the elusive Santa Marta Toro again.
- The tiny rodent was last spotted in 2011, for the first time in 113 years.
- Roach says that finding and gathering data on the Toro would be a huge symbol of hope for conservation.

Luzon Island in the Philippines is an endemic mammalian hotspot
- The team, made up of scientists from the United States and the Philippines, has just concluded a 15-year study on Luzon Island, during which they discovered 28 new species of mammals.
- The 28 new discoveries brought the total number of species of non-flying mammals that are now known to live on Luzon to 56.
- The researchers were able to determine that 52 of those species occur nowhere else in the world.

Scientists declare first mammal extinction due to climate change
- According to a new study by scientists with the University of Queensland and the Threatened Species Unit at the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, the Bramble Cay melomys (Melomys rubicola) is known only from a very small island with a total area of approximately 4 hectare (10 acres) called Bramble Cay in the northeast Torres Strait, between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea.
- A limited survey in March 2014 failed to find any of the rodents on the island, so the scientists returned later that year with the explicit goal of determining whether or not the Bramble Cay melomys still existed and enacting emergency measures to conserve any remaining individuals that might have been found
- The researchers were ultimately unsuccessful in finding any of the rodents, however. They attributed the species’ extinction to sea level rise and extreme weather events driven by rising global temperatures.

New rat species find sheds light on Philippine mammalian diversity
- New rat species find sheds light on Philippine mammalian diversity
- This discovery brings the number of cloud rat species to eighteen, twelve of which occur on Luzon Island, the largest island in the Philippines.
- Mt. Isarog supports the largest remaining area of high-elevation forest in southern Luzon, making it crucial for conservation of biological diversity.

Hog-nosed rat discovered in Sulawesi is so unique it’s been placed in its own genus
- The Hog-nosed shrew rat (Hyorhinomys stuempkei) is a carnivorous rodent discovered by a team of scientists from Louisiana State University’s Museum Victoria and the Australia’s Museum Victoria.
- Besides its “hog-nose,” other notable features of the rat include its “vampire teeth” and “curiously” long pubic hair.
- DNA sequencing confirmed the rat is not just a new species but a new genus.

Giant carnivorous rat with long pubic hair discovered in Indonesia
- Researchers have discovered a species of rodent in the mountainous interior of Sulawesi, a Indonesian island known for its high rates of endemism.
- The new species, dubbed Hyorhinomys stuempke, is noted for its especially long urogenital hairs.
- Hyorhinomys stuempkei was captured in an overnight trap on Sulawesi’s Mount Dako in early 2013.

Bison-sized rodent may have used teeth like elephant tusks

Capybaras, here in Colombia, are the world’s largest rodents today. But even they would have been dwarfed by Josephoartigasia monesi. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The world’s largest rodent today is the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), weighing in at around at about 45 kilograms (100 pounds), though the record breaking female weighs in at 91 kilograms […]
Scientists reintroduce agoutis in rainforest in city of 12 million

One of the female reintroduced agoutis with a radio collar. Photo by: Rui Salaverry. When one thinks of Rio de Janeiro, one usually doesn’t think: rainforest. However, in the heart of the city sits a massive rainforest sprung over long-gone sugar and coffee plantations. The forest—protected today as the Tijuca National Park—is home to hundreds […]
Scientists uncover six potentially new species in Peru, including bizarre aquatic mammal (photos)

This potentially new lizard species was discovered on the last day of a survey in a cloud forest in Andean Peru. Photo: Luis Mamani. A group of Peruvian and Mexican scientists say they have uncovered at least six new species near South America’s most famous archaeological site: Machu Picchu. The discoveries include a new mammal, […]
Scientists discover carnivorous water rat in Indonesia, good example of convergent evolution

Specimen represents entirely new genus Researchers have discovered a new carnivorous water rat on the island of Sulawesi that’s so unique it represents an entirely new genus. They believe many more rodent species await discovery in this relatively undisturbed part of Indonesia, but mining and other types of development may threaten vital habitat before it’s […]
Loss of wildlife and deforestation can increase human disease

Of mice and men: deforestation linked to human disease Deforestation is wiping out habitat for plants and animals around the world. It is linked to reductions in air and water quality, hastening climate change, and is contributing to increased rates of drought and fire. Now, for the first time, researchers have found that deforestation may […]
Chile turns to owls to combat fatal disease

A brood of barn owls. Photo by: chdwckvnstrsslhmn/Creative Commons 2.0. This year the Hanta virus has already caused 15 deaths in Chile, according to reports in The Santiago Times. It isn’t always fatal—the 15 deaths were of a total of 36 cases over six months—but the symptoms are severe. Those affected experience flu-like symptoms, as […]
Local knowledge sheds light on some of the world’s strangest mammals

One of the difficulties of studying rare and endangered species is that they are, by definition, hard to find. Scientists attempting to understand their distributions and the threats to their survival can spend hundreds of hours in the field while collecting little data, simply because sightings are so few and far between. To find out […]
The smoothtooth blacktip shark and four other species rediscovered in markets

Scientific American magazine recently ran an article on the rediscovery of the smoothtooth blacktip shark (Carcharhinus leiodon) in a Kuwaiti fish market. Believed extinct for over 100 years, the smoothtooth had not been seen since the naturalist Wilhelm Hein returned from a trip to Yemen in 1902. With its reappearance, scientists scoured Kuwaiti markets and […]
For agoutis, the night is fraught with peril

Scientists discover clear temporal patterns between the ocelot and its agouti prey. The early bird might get the worm, but, as scientists have discovered, the bird is also quite likely to become a cat’s meal. In a study recently published in the online Animal Behavior journal, scientists from the US and the Netherlands have examined […]
Big data shows tropical mammals on the decline

Harnessing big data for conservation. The world’s largest remote camera trap initiative—monitoring 275 species in 17 protected areas—is getting some big data assistance from Hewlett-Packard (HP). To date, the monitoring program known as the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network has taken over 1.5 million photos of animals in 14 tropical countries, but conservationists […]
New mountain porcupine discovered in Brazil (photos)

In Brazil’s Baturite Mountains, scientists have uncovered a new species of prehensile-tailed porcupine, according to a new paper in Revista Nordestina de Biologia. Dubbed, the Baturite porcupine (Coendou baturitensis), the new species was discovered when scientists noticed significant differences between it and its closest relative, the Brazilian porcupine (Coendou prehensilis). The name prehensile-tailed refers to […]
New prioritization for Brazil’s threatened mammals pushes little known primates and rodents to the top

Scientists have applied a species prioritization scheme to Brazil’s diverse mammals to deduce which species should become the focus of conservation efforts over the next few years in a new paper published in mongabay.com’s open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science. Rather than solely relying on the risk of extinction to prioritize species, the scheme – originally […]
Conservationists work to give South Georgia back to the birds

A team on South Georgia has successfully completed the world’s largest rodent eradication in an effort to rid the British territory of millions of rats and mice. Against the backdrop of an approaching Antarctic winter between February and May, three helicopters encountered perilous flying conditions while peppering the southern Atlantic island with 183 tonnes of […]
Scientists discover new giant mole rat in Africa (photos)

Although the term “giant mole rat” may not immediately inspire love, the mole rats of Africa are a fascinating bunch. They spend practically their entire lives underground building elaborate tunnel systems and feeding on plant stems. This underground lifestyle has led them to evolve small ears, tiny eyes, forward-pointing teeth for digging, and nostrils they […]
New species tree-dwelling porcupine discovered in critically threatened Brazilian habitat

Scientists in Brazil have described a new species of tree-dwelling porcupine in the country’s most endangered ecosystems. The description is published in last week’s issue of Zootaxa. A team of researchers led by Antonio Rossano Mendes Pontes [2009 interview], a biologist at the Federal University of Pernambuco, found the porcupine in a small forest fragment […]
Wolves, mole rats, and nyala: the struggle to conserve Ethiopia’s highlands

Gaysay Grasslands in Bale Mountains National Park. Photo courtesy of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS). There is a place in the world where wolves live almost entirely off mountain rodents, lions dwell in forests, and freshwater rolls downstream to 12 million people, but the place—Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park—remains imperiled by a lack of legal […]
Photos: new mammal menagerie uncovered in remote Peruvian cloud forest

Possible new species of night monkey in the Aotus genus. Photo by: Alexander Pari. Every year scientists describe around 18,000 new species, but mammals make up less than half a percent of those. Yet mammal surprises remain: deep in the remote Peruvian Andes, scientists have made an incredible discovery: a rich cloud forest and alpine […]
Rodents have lowest diversity in primary forests in the Congo

For many animal families, diversity and abundance rises as one moves away from human-impacted landscapes, like agricultural areas, into untouched places, such as primary rainforests. However, a new study in mongabay.com’s open access journal Tropical Conservation Science, shows that the inverse can also be true. In this case, scientists working in the Democratic Republic of […]
Bizarre new rodent discovered in Indonesia has only 2 teeth

A rodent unlike any other: Paucidentomys vermidax. Photo from: Esselstyn et al. The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is a workshop of bizarre evolutionary experiments. Think of the babirusa, pig-like species with tusks that puncture their snouts; or the maleo, a ground-bird that lays its eggs in geothermal heated sand; or the anoa, the world’s smallest […]
Rodent robbers fill role of mega mammals, help spread tropical trees

An agouti in Panama. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In order to disperse their seeds, large-fruited tropical trees probably relied on massive mammals that roamed the earth over 10,000 years ago. But with giants such as the mastodon now extinct, thieving rodents—who continually excavate and rebury others’ seeds—may be filling their role, according to a […]
Camera traps discover new populations of nearly extinct chinchillas

Scientists have discovered new colonies of Critically Endangered short-tailed chinchilla in Chile. Photo by: Martin Espinosa. The short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla chinchilla) once inhabited a range including the mountainous regions of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru, but today the species survives in only a handful of areas in northern Chile and Argentina. Worse still, evidence of […]
New mammal discovered in Indonesia

Christine’s Margareta rat. Photo by: Alessio Mortelliti/Sapienza University. Researchers have discovered a new species of rodent in Indonesia’s Mekongga Mountains, reports the Jakarta Globe. The new rodent, Christine’s Margareta rat (Margaretamys christinae), is only the fourth in the genus Margaretamy, all of which are found on the island of Sulawesi. The new mammal’s discoverer, Alessio […]
Two-foot-long cloud rat rediscovered after missing for forty years in the Philippines

View Larger Map Czech computer programmer, Vaclav Rehak, was the first person to see a living Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat (Crateromys australis) in nearly forty years, reports GMA News. Rehak was traveling on Dinagat Island with his new wife, Milada Rehakova-Petru, a specialist on Philippine tarsiers, when he stumbled on the rodent, which has only […]
Cute baby animal photos of the day: twin Malagasy giant jumping rats born at London Zoo

Mom and baby enjoy lunch. Malagasy giant jumping rats are born blind and hairless. Photo courtesy of ZSL. Twin Malagasy giant jumping rats (Hypogeomys antimena) were born in the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) zoo in London this month. Found only on the island of Madagascar, also home to the world’s lemurs, these rodents are […]
Giant rat plays big ecological role in dispersing seeds

Kivu giant pouched rat caught on camera trap eating a seed of Carapa grandiflora. Photo by: Aisha Nyiramana. Rats are rarely thought of as heroes. In fact, in many parts of the world they are despised, while in others they serve largely as food. But, scientists are now discovering that many tropical forest rodents, including […]
Cute animal picture of the day: baby mara, the giant rabbit that wasn’t

A two week old Patagonian mara makes his photographic appearance at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Central Park Zoo. Photo by: Julie Larsen Maher © WCS. The Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum) may look remarkably like a rabbit—or like a rabbit on stilts—but this animal is more closely related to a guinea pig than a rabbit. […]
Cameratraps take global snapshot of declining tropical mammals

Central Suriname Nature Reserve, Suriname. A jaguar (Panthera Onca), a Near Threatened species. Of the sites researched, Suriname’s site presented the highest number of species diversity. Photo courtesy of Conservation International Suriname, a member of the TEAM network. A groundbreaking cameratrap study has mapped the abundance, or lack thereof, of tropical mammal populations across seven […]
Photo: New mouse species discovered in Brazil

Researchers discovered a new species of mouse in Brazil, reports the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). Cerradomys goytaca mouse. Courtesy of ICMBio The species, named Cerradomys goytaca or Goytacá mouse after the local Goitacazes tribe, is found in the the coastal region of northern Rio de Janeiro in Jurubatiba Restinga National Park. ICMBio […]
7 new mice species discovered in the Philippines

Seven new species of mice have been discovered in the rainforests of Luzon island in the Philippines, according to the country’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The species were all found in mountain forests: two came from to Mt. Tapulao in Zambales; two from Mt. Banahaw in Quezon; two from the Mingan Mountains in […]
Red rodent shows up at Colombian nature lodge after 113 years on the lam

Not seen for over a century, these are the first ever photos of a living red-crested tree rat. Photo by: Lizzie Noble/ProAves. The red-crested tree rat (Santamartamys rufodorsalis) had not been recorded since 1898 and was thought possibly extinct—that is until one showed up at 9:30 PM on May 4th at a lodge in El […]
New population discovered of the America’s mini snow leopard: the Andean cat

The Andean cat. © Jim Sanderson, PhD/Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation. The elusive Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita), which until the late 1990s was only known to scientists by a couple photographs, has been discovered beyond the Andes mountain range for which it is named. According to researchers, the wild Andean cat resembles Asia’s snow leopard, […]
Updating the top 100 weirdest and most imperiled mammals

A lot can change in three years. In January 2007, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) jumpstarted a program unique in the conservation world: EDGE, which stands for Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered, selects the species it works with not based on popularity or fund-raising potential but on how endangered and evolutionary unique (in laymen’s […]
Australian mammals in steady decline even in large National Park

Kakadu National Park, one of the Australia’s “largest and best-resourced” protected areas, is experiencing a staggering decline in its small mammal population, according to a new study published in Wildlife Research. Spanning nearly 2 million hectares—larger than Fiji—the park lies in tropical northern Australia. “This decline is catastrophic,” John Woinarski, lead author of the study […]
Menanam Pohon Ara dapat Selamatkan Spesies Terancam di Borneo
Di salah satu hutan yang paling terpencil dan tak terganggu di Borneo, Lembah Maliau di kota Sabah, Malaysia, peneliti memilih sebuah pohon ara (Ficus caulocarpa) dan mensurvey spesies yang makan dari pohon tersebut dalam periode 5 hari. Penemuan mereka, dipublikasikan dalam Tropical Conservation Science, menunjukkan bahwa pohon ara dalam periode waktu yang pendek memberi makan […]
Planting figs could save endangered species in Borneo

In one of the most remote and undisturbed forests of Borneo, the Maliau Basin in the Malaysian state of Sabah, researchers picked a single fig tree (Ficus caulocarpa) and surveyed the species feeding from it over a 5-day-period. Their findings, published in Tropical Conservation Science, shows that a fig tree over a short period of […]
Study points to global snake decline

A number of reports over the last decade have shown amphibians, lizards, fish, and birds facing steep population declines across species and continents, providing further evidence that the planet is undergoing a mass extinction. Now a new study in Biology Letters adds another group of animals to that list: snakes. Studying 17 snake populations from […]
Long-distance seed dispersal and hunting, an interview with Kimberly Holbrook

The fourth in an interview series with participants in the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium. Scientists are just beginning to uncover the complex relationship between healthy biodiverse tropical forests and seed dispersers—species that spread seeds from a parent tree to other parts of the forest including birds, rodents, primates, and even elephants. By […]
Diverse habitats needed for survival of small mammals in Mexico

A new study in Tropical Conservation Science shows that small tropical mammals in Mexico—bats and rodents—require a variety of habitats to thrive. Surveying mammal populations in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, researchers found that sites comprising the greatest habitat diversity carried also the greatest diversity of rodents. In turn bats lived in all variety […]
Why seed dispersers matter, an interview with Pierre-Michel Forget, chair of the FSD International Symposium

The first in an interview series with participants in the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium. There are few areas of research in tropical biology more exciting and more important than seed dispersal. Seed dispersal—the process by which seeds are spread from parent trees to new sprouting ground—underpins the ecology of forests worldwide. In […]
Global warming, not mass suicide, threatens lemmings

Lemmings, the rodents inaccurately believed to commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs, are at real risk from climate change, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The Bronx Zoo-based group has just announced plans to study the impact of global warming on these creatures of the far North. “We need to know how climate change […]
Strange spiny rodent discovered in the Amazon

Strange spiny rodent discovered in the Amazon Strange spiny rodent discovered in the Amazon mongabay.com January 24, 2007 Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of arboreal rodent in the cloud forests of Peru. The species, named Isothrix barbarabrownae, is described in the current issue of Mastozoologia, the principal mammalogy journal of South America. The […]
Forest protection best way to control rats finds study

Forest protection best way to control rats finds study Forest protection best way to control rats finds study WCS April 13, 2006 Study says standing forest is the best rat control in Fiji Islands The most cost-effective way to stop non-native rats and mongoose from decimating highly endangered species on larger tropical islands is not […]
Newly discovered rodent not so new or rare after all

Newly discovered rodent not so new or rare after all Newly discovered rodent not so new or rare after all Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com April 5, 2006 The newly discovered species of rodent found in a marketplace in Central Laos turns out to not be so new or so rare after all. The Laotian rock […]
Bizarre rodent discovered in Southeast Asia; Oddity new to science

Bizarre rodent discovered in Southeast Asia; Oddity new to science Bizarre rodent discovered in Southeast Asia; Oddity new to science SCIENTISTS DISCOVER ODD-BALL RODENT Is it a squirrel? A rat? A Guinea pig? Try none of the above. May 11, 2005 Wildlife Conservation Society Release Newly discovered rodent from Laos Image courtesy of the Wildlife […]

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