Woolly Rat discovered in Volcano

BBC crew finds giant creature in Papua New Guinea

A BBC camera crew has discovered a new species of giant rat deep in the dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea, a country renowned for its coral reefs, mountain ranges, and cannibalistic past.

The expedition team, which captured the rat using an infrared camera trap whilst filming for the new series ‘Lost Land of the Volcano’, was astonished by its size: The silver-brown-coloured creature weighed an estimated 1.5kg, (3 times the weight of rats native to the UK) and with its tail, measures over a metre in length. 

Daredevil adventurer Steve Backshall, who WideWorld interviewed back in July (see feature here), led the expedition and described the rat as being the size of a ‘domestic cat’.

Backshall and the rest of the BBC natural history unit team were surprised by how fearless the rat was in their presence. Although snared, the specimen simply continued to groom itself and was unperturbed by the excited chatter of the film crew and the bright lights.

It is believed that the rat may be part of the genus Mallomys species, and has for now been provisionally dubbed ‘the woolly rat’. Its scientific name has yet to be determined.

The rat, now thought to be the largest of its kind in the world, was caught in the Mount Bosavi volcano crater a thousand metres above sea level.

Papua New Guinea contains a 200km-long stretch of active volcanoes, 14 of which are considered ‘high risk’ as they have all erupted in the last 150 years. Yet these eruptions have apparently had little effect upon the existence of these giant creatures that seem quite content in their potentially life-threatening habitat.

The discovery of the Bosavi ‘Woolly rat’ will be broadcast as part of the ‘Lost Land of Volcano’ series on BBC One on Tuesday September 22nd.