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Now you see it鈥�
EDWARDS鈥橲 pheasant (Lophura edwardsi) must be the unluckiest species
of the year. Scientists had thought it was extinct in the wild until this year,
when local villagers in a forest reserve just outside Bach Ma National Park in
Vietnam captured two of them. Their discovery was the culmination of a six-month
hunt for the birds, organised by the National Park Development Project, during
which 500 colour posters of the birds were distributed to local villages.
Excitement surrounding the new find didn鈥檛 last long: unfortunately, both birds
died from injuries sustained during their capture.
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Cloudrunner
THIS rat on a stick is actually a new species of nocturnal rodent from the
Philippines, Crateromys heaneyi. Although local people knew of its
existence, scientists had never seen it before this year. Its common name is the
Panay cloudrunner and, although it resembles a large squirrel, little is known
about its behaviour in the wild. It was spotted by Robert Kennedy and his team
from Cincinnati Museum Center in Ohio during an expedition that was set up to
record birdlife in the mountains of Panay.
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Head-hunted
A CRACKDOWN on poaching in Brazil turned up more than anyone had bargained
for鈥攁 new species of marmoset. Scientists in the central Amazon region
responded to a tip-off that a local hunter had a curious creature. 鈥淚t was a
very emotional experience,鈥� says Maur铆cio de Almeida Norohona, of the
Amazon Forest Foundation. 鈥淲e went to visit the guy and when he came out to
greet us, he had the monkey on his head.鈥� Despite its trendy orange fur,
everyone hopes that the marmoset is not destined to become just another fashion
accessory. It has been named Callithrix saterei, after a local tribe,
the Sateri.
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In a pickle
THE Museum of Natural History in Lawrence, Kansas, has been taking
preservation too seriously. A long-forgotten pickled frog rediscovered this year
turned out to be a new species, Colostethus parkerae. Daniel Meinhardt
and Jeff Parmelee stumbled across it in the museum鈥檚 collection. The tree frog
was found by William Duellman and Juan Le贸n during an expedition in 1974
to Paso de El Danto, one of the rainiest places in Venezuela, and had been
gathering dust in a cupboard ever since.
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Spiky customer
BELIEVE it or not, you鈥檙e looking at a hedge plant, Madagascan-style. Local
people have used the shrub for years to keep cattle from wandering, but it had
never been identified by scientists. Its bright seeds and spiky bark were
spotted by David Du Puy from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Jean-No毛l
Labat from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. They called it
Erythrina madagascariensis. Botanists have been tripping over new plant
species all year, says Phillip Cribb from Kew. Other finds include seven new
species of vanilla.
