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ABC News
05-06-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Giant 'woolly' rat caught on camera for first time in Papua New Guinea's mountains
In the dead of night, a giant rat the size of a small terrier scurries among the forest ferns in the wet, glacial valley of Papua New Guinea's highest mountain. Little does it know, it is being caught on candid camera. For the first time, the subalpine woolly rat — the biggest rodent in Australia and Oceania — has been documented in Papua New Guinea's Mount Wilhelm. While the shaggy-furred rat was well-known by local hunters, it had not been photographed live in its habitat by the scientific community until now. "There is one book I was working with, on the mammals of PNG, and there is just a painting of his huge animal without any pictures," said biologist František Vejmělka. Only about 50 specimens — mostly of the rats' skulls — existed in scientific collections and most pictures of the rodent, other than a photograph of a preserved museum specimen, were painted illustrations. Being nocturnal, not particular noisy, and a drab shade of grey meant the tree-climbing rat also was hard to spot. "When scientists first described it in 1989, they assumed it was herbivorous based on the shape of their molars of their teeth," Mr Vejmělka said. But he confirmed this by purchasing rats local hunters caught to examine the rats' stomach contents, which were filled with ferns. Mr Vejmělka also documented their reddish-brown chests, a trait previously characterised as an "artefact" in existing literature. Measuring about 75 centimetres from head to tail and weighing about 1.5 kilograms, Mallomys istapantap is an elusive creature, only found in the eastern part of New Guinea's mountains. Mr Vejmělka said the rodent's Latin name means "it's on the top right" in the local Melanesian pidgin dialect, reflecting its habitat 3,000 meters above sea level, higher than where locals lived. The University of South Bohemia mammalian researcher published his findings in the journal Mammalia in April after spending six months among Papua New Guinea's highest peaks looking for the giant rat along with 60 other rodent species. He said standard trapping did not work in the mountainous forests, so he set up camera traps and joined local landowners on night hunts to find the shaggy critter. Mr Vejmělka said the scientific community's lack of understanding of the rodent was a reflection of its remote habitat rather than its numbers. "During my time spent there working with the hunters I could see that they were actually pretty abundant. He credited the local community and indigenous hunters for helping him with his PhD research into the island's fauna and hoped to return and continue his work "The mammals of the island and the biodiversity is so poorly known still, that it's really a place for a lifetime of scientific work."
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Female skier is dragged from her tent and mauled by a polar bear on Arctic island
A female skier was mauled by a polar bear after the animal dragged her from her tent in the middle of the night in the Canadian Arctic. The unnamed woman had been camping at Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island when she was attacked last month. Other visitors sleeping in tents close by came to her assistance after hearing her screams. One individual directly intervened and stopped the attack, according to local media, and administered first aid on the woman. She was then transported to the Summit Lake emergency shelter in the Akshayuk Pass before being taken by snow machine to the nearby community of Pangnirtung. The victim was released following a medical examination, but details regarding the severity of her injuries remain unclear. The polar bear was identified as a young female with a broken jaw. The animal's injury would have affected its ability to hunt, likely contributing to its aggressive behaviour, Explorers Web reported. Parks Canada killed the polar bear after considering the animal a continued threat. The animal's carcass was given to local hunters, who used its parts for clothing and food. A similar incident in the Arctic also took place last month, after a lumbering polar bear was seen charging after a man. A harrowing clip from the island of Svalbard shows the moment one brazen creature chased after a Russian mining manager, who can be heard shouting 'No! Go away!' at the nearing bear. The bear was seen just feet away from the lucky Russian as a snowmobile came to his dramatic rescue. While bears are not active predators of humans, they will attack if especially hungry or threatened. Only last year, two polar bears killed a worker at a remote Arctic radar station in Canada's Nunavut territory.
