Shulou(Shulou.com)12/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Nov. 29 (Xinhua)-- the environmentalist team has rediscovered a species of golden mole that has not been seen in nearly 90 years. Scientists used Environmental DNA (eDNA) and sniffer dogs to track his home on a dune in South Africa.

The Wynn's Golden Mole / de Venton Golden Mole (De Winton's golden mole) was last recorded in human history, dating back to 1936, when it was found in Port Noros on the northwest coast of South Africa.

The golden mole is a mammal of the genus Golden Mole of the Golden Mole family. It is endemic to South Africa. Its natural habitat is subtropical dry shrub, Mediterranean shrub vegetation and sandy coast.

The species was rediscovered in 2023 and is considered one of the "top 25 most wanted" missing species by the conservation group Re:Wild.

The de Venton Golden Mole is the 11th "lost" species since the Re:Wild project was launched in 2017. Previous rediscoveries include the silverback deer in Vietnam, the Somali Senji in Djibouti, the Voeltzkow chameleon in Madagascar, the Fernandina giant turtle in the Galapagos Islands, and the Wallace giant wasp in Indonesia and the echidna in Attenborough.

Finding the Devonton Golden Mole is no easy task. This timid creature not only lives in an underground environment that is almost inaccessible to humans, but also has few details about its appearance, genetics and behavior. so it is difficult to distinguish the golden mole from three other closely related species in the region.

The team turned to two interesting new technologies to track it. The first is eDNA, which is genetic information released into the environment by animals in the form of skin, hair or body fluids. The second is to use sniffer dogs to help find animals in the vast sand dunes.

The researchers collected more than 100 soil samples from the area and analyzed the eDNA. Four species of golden mole were detected, including three known species and one unidentified species.

The study also provides an interesting proof of concept for using eDNA to identify species-a technique that has also helped scientists rediscover several vanishing frog species in Brazil.

CTOnews.com attached the reference address of the paper: Mynhardt, S.S., Matthew, E., le Roux, J.P. Et al. Environmental DNA from soil reveals the presence of a "lost" Afrotherian species. Biodivers Conserv (2023). Https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02728-2

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