Cloud Rat Rediscovered in Philippines After 112 Years

The greater dwarf cloud rat captured this month in the Philippines.
Larry Heaney, courtesy of The Field Museum

(foxnews) -- The greater dwarf cloud rat was thought to live in the canopies of tall trees in the Philippines, but the last sighting of one was 112 years ago. Now it has been found again.

One of the rodents was found in Mt. Pulag National Park in the Philippines.

The fist-sized mammal 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.

"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," said Lawrence Heaney, curator of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago and leader of a team that rediscovered the rat. full sotry