Dwarf cloud rat rediscovered in the Philippines after over a century

From Wildlife Extra:

Dwarf cloud rat rediscovered in the Philippines after 112 years

Filipino-Field Museum discovery will fuel more research

May 2008. A team of Filipino and American scientists have rediscovered a highly distinctive mammal “a greater dwarf cloud rat” that was last seen 112 years ago. It has never before been discovered in its natural habitat and was thought by some to be extinct.

The greater dwarf cloud rat (Carpomys melanurus) has dense, soft reddish-brown fur, a black mask around large dark eyes, small rounded ears, a broad and blunt snout, and a long tail covered with dark hair. An adult weighs about 185 grams.

First sighting since 1896

Lawrence Heaney, Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum and Project Leader, said “This beautiful little animal was seen by biologists only once previously, by a British researcher in 1896 who was given several specimens by local people, so he knew almost nothing about the ecology of the species. Since then, the species has been a mystery, in part because there is virtually no forest left on Mt. Data, where it was first found.”

On 24 April 2008, the research team completed its field work, the first comprehensive survey of the small mammals of Mt. Pulag National Park, according to Samuel Penafiel, the Regional Executive Director for the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the Cordillera Administrative Region. Among the results was the capture of the dwarf cloud rat, which is a smaller relative of the giant clouds rats, spectacular animals found only on Luzon Island, but widespread and comparatively well known. …

Other unusual species documented by this research team during this survey are the bushy-tailed cloud rat, a spectacular animal of 1.5 kg with long, flowing black fur that they found to be common in mossy forest at 2,600 to 2,800 meters elevation, as well as three species of small rodents that feed primarily on earthworms. …

Cloud rats are one of the most spectacular cases of adaptive radiation by mammals anywhere in the world, with at least 15 species ranging in size from 2.6 kg to 15 grams, all living only in the Philippines. Cloud rats are a prime example of why biologists refer to the Philippines as “the Galapagos times ten,” Heaney said. “The Philippines may have the greatest concentration of unique biological diversity, relative to its size, of any country in the world.”