research worker have rediscover an adorably cunning critter over three decades after it was thought to have gone extinct . Known as the San Quintin kangaroo rat , it was last interpret scamper around the waterless coast of Baja California in 1986 , until researchers from the San Diego Natural story Museumfound four individualswithin its original range .
The rodents were first described in 1925 by the American zoologist Laurence M. Huey , who at the time was the curator of bird and mammalian at the San Diego Natural History Museum and would go on to describe 84 different species and race of varying tool .
From the offset , theSan Quintin kangaroo rats(Dipodomys gravipes ) are think to have had a restricted stove , fall out only within a 20 - kilometer ( 12.4 - mile ) comic strip of land running along the eastern coastline of Baja California between San Telmo and El Rosario . Despite this limited distribution , there were still thought to be two decided populations , a northerly one that hold up among cacti on mountainous slopes and a southern one found in the outpouring knit stitch and on flat earth .
Yet by 1986 , no kangaroo rat could be find anywhere in their range . This prompted the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to announce that the little creatures were critically endanger at best , but more probably extinct .
The suit of this precipitous descent is almost surely down to the fact that those lowland floodplains were not only good for the kangaroo rats , which ate the lush plants and the semen they produced , but also for farming . Much of the kangaroo git ' original home ground has now unfortunately been sour over to Department of Agriculture .
But this modish expedition has turn up some incredible news . It seems the little gnawer have not been wiped out totally as was dread , but have bring off to survive despite the land use alteration . This is great word , as it suggests the dirty dog is a lot more resilient than anyone imagined .
“ Not only is this discovery a thoroughgoing example of the importance of ripe onetime - fashioned natural chronicle field work , but we have the opportunity to develop a preservation plan based on our findings , ” say San Diego Natural History Museum ’s Scott Tremor in astatement . “ The power to take our research and bend it into tangible preservation try is shiver . It is a committal to bear on the uniqueness of the Baja California Peninsula . ”
The team have since find the kangaroo rats at a 2nd site inside the Valle Tranquilo Nature Reserve , which is owned and managed by the conservation group Terra Peninsular A.C. , meaning that hopefully these delightfully cute creatures have their future secure .
