Photo by Mark Gurney, Smithsonian Institution
In this day and
age, the discovery of new mammals is a very rare occurrence, but surprisingly
there are still animals unknown to us that are being discovered. In fact, just
last year 2013, a discovery was presented to the public - the olinguito. The olinguito is the first
new carnivore species said to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35
years (O’Brien, 2013). It is scientifically documented as a member of the family Procyonidae, which includes raccoons,
coatis, kinkajous and olingos. It weighs two pounds, have large eyes and woolly orange-brown fur. It
can be found in the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, as its scientific name, “neblina” (Spanish for “fog”) suggests (Barrat,
2013).
It was
Kris Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National
Museum of Natural History in Washington, who led the research that confirmed
the existence of the olinguito. It all started
when Helgen, while studying museum specimens of olingos, noticed that some
of the specimens looked different from the others. He observed that the
specimens were smaller, have tinier teeth and longer, denser coats. He became
more curious when the accompanying notes of the specimens stated that they had been
collected decades ago in the northern Andes, at elevations between 5,000 and
9,000 feet, which are much higher than olingos are known to live (Dell’Amore,
2013).
Being certain
that he had discovered a new species never before described by science, Helgen led
an effort to confirm his discovery. He conducted a thorough investigation including
DNA testing. It was in 2006 that Helgen, together with Roland Kays,
director of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation Lab at the North Carolina
Museum of Natural Sciences, and Ecuadorian zoologist Miguel Pinto who confirmed the olinguito’s existence based
on a few seconds of a grainy video shot, set out to find the unidentified
species in the forests. The team started their search in western Ecuador's
Otanga Cloud Forest Preserve (Dell’Amore, 2013). As soon as they found the
olinguito, they started documenting their observations. They observed that the olinguito is mostly active at night, is mainly a
fruit eater, rarely comes out of the trees, and has one baby at a time (Cowans,
2013).
Unknown
to scientists and researchers, the olinguito has been hiding in the cloud
forests of Western and Central Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. The specimens have been unrecognized in
museums and mistaken for an olingo for more than a century. The olinguito has
also been unrecognized in zoos for quite a time. In fact, an olinguito from
Colombia made the rounds of several zoos in the United States during the 1960s
and 1970s. The zoo officials in charge during that time narrated how the animal refused to mate or mingle with other
olingos, which is the reason why they sent it to other zoos hoping it would
eventually mate. Helgen was convinced that the animal was not just being
choosy. He pointed out that mating was not possible because the olinguito and
the olingo are two different species (Simms & Doughty, 2013). In 1920, the olinguito came close to being discovered
as a new species by a New York zoologist, who came across an olinguito specimen
in a museum which he found unusual. He, however, did not publish his discovery
(Barrat, 2013).
In this age of discoveries, who would ever imagine that there
are still other species unidentified. Thoughts keep running through my mind. Could
there be other species which have lived, thrived and eventually became extinct
without ever being identified? Could deforestation, habitat loss, pollution and
climate change possibly contributed to the extinction of some species? Could
there be more out there waiting for us to discover?
Sources:
O’Brien,
Jane, 2013. Olinguito: ‘Overlooked’ mammal carnivore is major discovery. BBC
News. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23701151.
March 3, 2014.
Barrat, John,
2013. Smithsonian Scientists Discover New Carnivore: The Olinguito. Smithsonian
Science. http://smithsonianscience.org/2013/08/olinguito/.
March 3, 2014.
Dell’Amore,
Christine, 2013. Newly Discovered Carnivore Looks Like Teddy Bear. National
Geographic. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130815-olinguito-new-species-rare-mammal-science-animals/.
March 3, 2014.
Cowans,
Emilia, 2013. Museum Scientist Among Team That Discovers New Species of
Carnivore. http://naturalsciences.org/about-us/news/museum-scientist-among-team-discovers-new-species-carnivore.
March 3, 2014.
Simms, June
& Doughty, Bob, 2013. Scientists Discover New Animal. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/olinguito-frogs-elephants/1736686.html.
March 3, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment