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  BBC 6 Dec 05
'New mammal' seen in Borneo woods
By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website

Channel NewsAsia 6 Dec 05
Researchers discover new animal in jungles of Borneo: WWF
AFP

PlanetArk 6 Dec 05
Strange, New Carnivore Species Sighted on Borneo

WWF website 6 Dec 05
Mysterious carnivore discovered in Borneo’s forests

National Geographic 6 Dec 05
Photo in the News: New Mammal Discovered in Borneo?
Victoria Gilman

December 6, 2005—Creatures hoping to stay incognito in Borneo's rain forests should watch where they step. The mystery animal pictured at top walked right into the limelight when it entered a nighttime camera trap set by World Wildlife Fund researchers.

The scientists say the newly exposed critter, a red-furred creature about the size of a house cat, could be the first new mammal species discovered on the Southeast Asian island in more than a century.

The camera caught only two blurred images, which WWF released today. But an artist's rendering (shown at bottom) offers an idea of what the whole animal might look like.

"We showed the photos of the animal to locals who know the wildlife of the area, but nobody had ever seen this creature before," WWF biologist Stephan Wulffraat said in a press statement.

"We also consulted several Bornean wildlife experts—some thought it looked like a lemur, but most were convinced it was a new species of carnivore." Scientists hope to confirm the discovery by eventually catching a live animal.

WWF website 6 Dec 05
Mysterious carnivore discovered in Borneo’s forests

Gland, Switzerland – WWF researchers may have discovered a new, mysterious carnivore species in the dense, central forests of Borneo.

The animal, a mammal slightly larger than a domestic cat with dark red fur and a long, bushy tail, was photographed twice by a camera trap at night.

This could be the first time in more than a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on the island. However, WWF researchers have not yet established whether this is an entirely new species or if it is a new species of marten or civet cat, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox. They are hoping to be able to confirm more about the discovery by setting cage traps and catching a live specimen.

“We showed the photos of the animal to locals who know the wildlife of the area, but nobody had ever seen this creature before,” said Stephan Wulffraat, a biologist who is coordinating WWF’s research on this species.

“We also consulted several Bornean wildlife experts, some thought it looked like a lemur, but most were convinced it was a new species of carnivore."

WWF stresses that the strange animal, which also has very small ears and large hind legs, might remain a mystery for ever, if its habitat is not adequately protected.

Kayan Mentarang National Park in Kalimantan, where the carnivore was photographed, is located in the “Heart of Borneo”, a mountainous region covered with vast tracks of rainforest.

But plans announced by the Indonesian government in July to create the world’s largest palm oil plantation in this area would have a devastating impact on the forests, wildlife and indigenous people.

The proposed scheme, funded by the China Development Bank, is expected to cover an area of 1.8 million hectares, equivalent to about half the size of The Netherlands.

WWF stresses that infertile soil and steep areas, such as those in the Heart of Borneo, prevent the development of oil palm plantations. According to experts, it is not recommended to plant oil palm in areas 200 metres above sea level, because of low productivity. Most of the Heart of Borneo is between 1000 and 2000 metres high.

WWF’s Heart of Borneo initiative aims to assist the island’s three nations (Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia) to conserve more than 22 million hectares of rainforest in the area.

“This discovery highlights the urgent need to conserve the unique forests in the Heart of Borneo, as this creature – whatever it is – hasn’t been seen since the pictures were taken and is therefore likely to occur in very low numbers,” said Stuart Chapman, WWF’s International Coordinator of the Heart of Borneo Programme.

“What other secrets do these remote forests hold?”

It is extremely rare nowadays to discover a new mammal species of this size, particularly a carnivore, WWF says.

The potential new species of carnivore in Borneo would be the first since the discovery of the Borneo ferret-badger in 1895.

PlanetArk 6 Dec 05
Strange, New Carnivore Species Sighted on Borneo

GENEVA - Environmental researchers are preparing to capture what they call a new, mysterious species of carnivore on Borneo, the first such discovery on the wildlife-rich Indonesian island in over a century.

Swiss-based environmental group WWF said on Monday its researchers photographed the strange animal, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, in the dense, central mountainous rainforests of Borneo.

"This could be the first time in more than a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on the island," said the WWF in a statement.

The mammal, slightly larger than a cat with red fur and a long tail, was photographed twice by a camera trap at night. Locals and wildlife experts who viewed photographs of the animal, which has very small ears and large hind legs, said they had never seen such a creature before and were convinced that it was a new species, WWF said.

Researchers hope to confirm the discovery by setting cage traps to catch a live specimen, but warn that Indonesian government plans to clear the rainforest to create the world's largest palm oil plantation may interfere with plans, WWF said.

The proposed plantation scheme, funded by the China Development Bank, is expected to cover an area of 1.8 million hectares, equivalent to about half the size of The Netherlands, said the WWF, formerly known as the World Wide Fund for Nature.

The potential new species of carnivore in Borneo would be the first since the discovery of the Borneo ferret-badger in 1895, the WWF said. Pictures of the animal were first taken by WWF researchers in 2003, the photos kept unpublished by the WWF as research continued. The WWF decided to make public the photos with the release of a book about Borneo, to be published on Tuesday.

Channel NewsAsia 6 Dec 05
Researchers discover new animal in jungles of Borneo: WWF
AFP

JAKARTA : Researchers from the WWF conservation group may have made the extremely rare discovery of a new species of mammal in the dense forests of central Borneo.

The carnivorous mammal, slightly larger than a domestic cat with dark red fur and a long bushy tail, was caught by an automated camera at night twice in 2003 on the Indonesian side of the island, the WWF said in a press release.

Photos of the animals have been shown to locals well acquainted with wildlife in the densely forested area and the organisation also consulted several Bornean wildlife experts but none recognised it.

"Most were convinced it was a new species of carnivore," WWF said, adding that researchers were hoping to set cage traps to catch a live specimen.

The WWF says it is extremely rare these days to discover a new mammal species of this size, particularly a carnivore. If confirmed, it would be the first time in more than a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on the island, which lies between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, it added.

The animal, which has very small ears and large hind legs, was spotted in the Kayan Mentarang national park in the mountainous jungles of Kalimantan, where vast tracts of rainforest still remain.

The group warned however that plans by Indonesia announced in July to create the world's largest palm oil plantation in Kalimantan, along the border with Malaysia's Sarawak and Sabah states, threaten further new discoveries.

The scheme, funded by the China Development Bank, is expected to cover an area of 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres) and may have devastating environmental consequences, it said.

Environmental watchdogs have criticized the plan, arguing that the jungle soil in the area was infertile and that the elevation was unsuitable for palm oil. Indonesia is losing at least 2.8 million hectares of its forests every year to illegal logging alone.

The forestry ministry's director for protected areas, Banjar Laban, told AFP that the potential discovery of a new mammal emphasised the urgent need to protect the biodiversity of Borneo's forests.

"If it turns out to be truly a new mammalian species, this should really become a national pride, something that the entire nation should be proud of and work to preserve," he said.

Laban said that the Kayan Mentarang protected forest straddling Central and East Kalimantan was a vast source of biodiversity with 361 new species -- plants, insects, fish and other animals-- discovered between 1994 and 2004.

"But this forest especially along the border (with Malayisa's Sarawak and Sabah) is under threat from illegal logging, the encroachment of logging trails inland and of other human activities," he said.

The discovery of a new species "should lead to a better appreciation of the forest, by the government at all levels as well as the population," he added.

Rapid deforestation has had devastating environmental consequences for both Indonesia and the Southeast Asian region, causing floods and landslides and shrouding nearby countries with haze from illegal fires set to clear land. - AFP

BBC 6 Dec 05
'New mammal' seen in Borneo woods
By Richard Black Environment Correspondent, BBC News website

The creature, believed to be carnivorous, was spotted in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, which lies in Indonesian territory on Borneo.

The team which discovered it, led by biologist Stephan Wulffraat, is publishing full details in a new book on Borneo and its wildlife.

"You don't find new mammals that often, and to do so must be extraordinary," said Callum Rankine, head of the species programme at WWF-UK. "We've got camera traps there, which are passive devices relying on infra-red beams across forest paths," he told the BBC News website.

"Lots of animals come past - it's much easier than pushing through the forest itself - and when an animal cuts the beam, two cameras catch images from the front and back."

Not a lemur

So far, two images are all that exist. But they were enough to convince Nick Isaac from the Institute of Zoology in London that the animal may indeed be new.

"The photos look most like a lemur," he told the BBC News website. "But there certainly shouldn't be lemurs in Borneo." These long-tailed primates are confined to the island of Madagascar.

"It's more likely to be a viverrid - that's the family which includes the mongoose and civets - which is a very poorly known group," Dr Isaac said. "One of the photos clearly shows the length of the tail and how muscly it is; civets use their tails to balance in trees, so this new animal may spend chunks of its time up trees too."

That could be one reason why it has not been spotted before. Another could be that access to the heart of Borneo is becoming easier as population centres expand and roads are built.

The WWF says this is the heart of the issue. It accuses the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia, which each own parts of Borneo, of encouraging the loss of native jungle by allowing the development of giant palm oil plantations.

Last week Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, chief minister of Sarawak, the larger Malaysian state on Borneo, said that such claims are unfounded and part of a smear campaign.

He told the BBC News website that palm oil plantations are mainly sited on land which had previously been cleared for cultivation or are in "secondary jungle".

But the WWF says species like the new viverrid - if new viverrid it be - are threatened by such development. It is concerned that other as yet unknown creatures may go extinct before their existence can be documented.

The group is planning to capture the new species in a live trap so it can be properly studied and described.
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