A Lost World in Papua New Guinea

Mount Bosavi

Stunned scientists have found a lost world of undiscovered animals.

New creatures have been unearthed in Papua New Guinea including frogs with fangs and one of the world's biggest rats, and its woolly!

Provisionally named the Bosavi woolly rat, it is thought to live only in the crater and nowhere else in the world.

The cat-size rodent measures 32ins from nose to tail and weighs 3lbs. On an expedition to the unexplored rainforest in the Pacific island, scientists found more than 40 new species - including 16 frogs, three fish and a bat.

Dr McGavin said the vegetarian rat was incredibly tame: "It just sat next to me nibbling on a piece of leaf. It won't have seen a human before. The crater of Bosavi really is the lost world."

The animal has a silver-brown coat of long, thick fur that probably helps it to survive the wet, cold winters inside the 1,000m high crater walls.

It is thought to belong to the rodent genus Mallomys, which contains other out-sized rat species including another giant woolly rat found in the Foja Mountains of Papua New Guinea by an expedition led by Conservation International in 2007.



The scientists and camera crew were roaming around a kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and the surrounding jungle. The land has been virtually untouched since the volcano erupted 200,000 years ago, allowing the species to evolve away from humans.
A team including experts from London Zoo and Oxford University are thought to be the first people to enter the crater.

Expedition leader Dr George McGavin said: "It was mind-blowing to be there. It is time we pulled our fingers out and decided these habitats are worth saving."

Naturalist Steve Backshall added: "These discoveries are really significant. The world is getting smaller and it is getting very hard to find places that are so far off the beaten track."

The documentary is being shown on BBC TV.