“New” Rat Discovered in the Phillipines
The discovery of a species in nature often results in headlines such as “New Species Discovered”. However, what exactly is a new species?
A ‘new’ species would probably be only one that had evolved into something unique very recently, or zapped instantly into existence by the power of God, or created by genetic engineers in a laboratory. Therefore, it appears to be safe to say that there is no such thing as a ‘new’ rat. (Unless one includes politicians).
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A better headline might be Really Old Rat Species Noticed by Scientists for the First Time. It might not be the least bit surprising, that rats don’t get the same kind of appreciation as other species. So perhaps there are many ‘new’ rats out there just waiting to get their big break.
Of course, we all know what ‘new’ means in an article about an undiscovered species. The word ‘new’ also does reflect a curious situation. Humans presumably are not aware of many species on the planet, and if we do notice one we didn’t know about, we call it ‘new’, but its not new, its only new to us. Why don’t we know more about the species around us? How many more species will we ‘discover’ from the present day onwards?
The author apologizes for the lack of a photograph of the Mindanao Hairy Rat. There are very, very few such photograhs and they are most likely copyright protected, which could be a good thing for the rat’s longevity. If few people are aware it exists, there’s less chance it will become a popular animal to be made into a domestic pet. I’m so glad there still are some rats living in the wild, and not only in city sewer systems. If we were familiar with rats only from seeing them in their natural wild habitats, maybe we would not hate them so much. Incidentally, the Phillipines is the home of many endemic mammals. The hairy rat on Mindanao was noticed by scientists in 2006, but not identified as unique until recently.
Image Credit: Public Domain, Zorger Images
Okay…. Is this article about telling us about this ‘new’ rat species or just a rant about how scientists overlook the unpopular? The title makes it seem like the first and that’s kind of why I wanted to read it. Can we at least get something on the species?
Yes, “new” in this case means it’s new to us. What’s your point?