Mysterious carnivore spotted on Indonesia's Borneo

Mysterious carnivore spotted on Indonesia's Borneo: WWF

Researchers from the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) may have spotted a new mammalian species in the dense central forests of Borneo island, the organisation said. The carnivorous animal, slightly larger than a domestic cat with dark red fur and a long bushy tail, was caught by a camera trap at night twice in 2003, the WWF said in a press release.

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

If confirmed, it would be the first time in more than a century that a new carnivore has been discovered on the island, 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 tracks of rainforest still remain.

"The discovery of the mammal species in Kayan Mentarang national park indicates the existence of many other undiscovered species. Between 1994 and 2004, at least 361 new species have been described from Borneo," the WWF said.

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) -- about half the size of the Netherlands -- 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.

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.

This is very cool!!!

It's always nice to now that there is still much on land we do not know about....

Strange, new carnivore species sighted on Borneo

[edit on 5-12-2005 by loam]

Awesome find

It's stuff like this that gives you hope that maybe, just maybe, one of the more famous cryptozoological creatures are real.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
It's stuff like this that gives you hope that maybe, just maybe, one of the more famous cryptozoological creatures are real.

It's why I remain open to the possibility.....

Very nice find Loam. We have not found everything yet have we? There is way too much wilderness out there still for there not to be more.

Here is another link with more on this.

New Science 12-6-05 Story

Experts are mystified by the new creature, with some saying it looks like a civet, and others say that it resembles a lemur (Image: Wahyu Gumelar/Stephan Wulffraat, WWF)

A lemur is the first thing that came to my mind. That's one strong looking tail, almost prehensile.



Malay Civet:




[edit on 2005/12/5 by GradyPhilpott]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
A lemur is the first thing that came to my mind. That's one strong looking tail, almost prehensile.

Its eyes also appear to be quite large and positioned forward...it definitely looks like it could be some type of primate like a lemur.

Like Grady, the first thing I thought was "whoa! New lemur! COOL!"

Sadly, Indonesia is NOT very ecologically oriented. The animal may also be every endangered.

The New Scientist boys say it's quite possible it's a new type of lemur.

A trivial fact, but it looks remarkably like the creature from the Mars Volta video "Televators".

Let's hope we learn more about them before they go the way of the Dodo.

reply to post by chebob


wow ... the BBC only reported this last night!!! .... 8 years after you guys!! ... well done

reply to post by loam


def looks lemurish, kind of possum like eyes. as their homes are torn down and more and more forest exposed by those horrible disguisting humans, we will get to meet a few more species we didn't know about. but it will be hello goodbye... it's too late to even consider their future... that should have been done before one tree was felled.. and I notice in the article that the chinese are the ones financing the palm oil tree plantation my god. chinese againnnnn. thanks for posting, enjoyable.

reply to post by johnrobca


Yes you are right, i saw it while reading CNN, cute little bugger..

They call it the The Olinguito.

The olinguito is in the Andes, this is about Indonesia?

You people...

Lemurs only life on Madagascar, though yes it isn't entirely impossible a relative of the lemur lives in Borneo.
Much more likely something else though.

Originally posted by yourmaker
The olinguito is in the Andes, this is about Indonesia?

The island Borneo to be exact. Which belongs to the country Indonesia.

But yes.