High-resolution automatic cameras with infrared night vision have become one of the main equipment for studying wildlife. The case of the wolf photographed in Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelonès, Catalonia) is just an anecdote in a technology that began to be applied around the world years ago.
A team made up of forestry agents from Zaira (Vangunu, Solomon Islands) and scientists from the universities of Melbourne (Australia) and Solomon Islands have taken advantage of the efficiency of modern photo-trapping cameras to capture the first images of a species of giant rat discovered in 2017 and of which only data on one specimen was known until now.
The survival of the Vangunu giant rat (Uromys vika) had only been defended in recent years by some residents of this small island, who claimed to have seen rodents climbing trees and opening coconuts with their teeth.
The popular stories aroused the curiosity of scientists and with the help of forestry agents, a study campaign was launched with the support of automatic motion detection cameras. The objective was to verify the veracity of the stories and the determination of the specific species to which these supposed rodents belonged, comparing them with the species known until now. The results of this work have been published in the journal Ecology and Evolution (November 20).
The background was the work carried out in 2017 by a team of researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago (United States) who explored the island and observed several specimens, capturing one of them to take skin samples with which to carry out genetic studies. . Observations suggested that the rats probably weighed on average 1 kilogram and were up to 45 centimeters long, about three to four times the size of common brown or black rats. By performing DNA analysis on the skin sample, the team discovered that the rat was in fact a previously unknown species: they named it Uromys vika.
The Chicago team was unable to obtain images of these rats in their environment, which led to creating illustrations depicting these rodents, the only images that scientists have had available for study.
For the rediscovery of the species, the research team led by Tyrone H. Lavery installed several camera traps in sites recommended by locals on Vangunu Island. Their experiment was a success: the team managed to capture 95 images of the rats which, after analysis, revealed that they belonged to four different individuals.
The researchers suggest that their efforts may have come just in time, as it appears that rats will likely become extinct within a few years due to logging activities, which are destroying the only place where they live.
