Researchers in South Africa say they have rediscovered a species of mole with an iridescent golden coat and the ability to almost "swim" through sand dunes after it hadn't been seen for more than 80 years and was thought to be extinct. The De Winton's golden mole—a small, blind burrower with "super-hearing powers" and an appetite for insects—was found to be still alive on a beach in Port Nolloth on the west coast of South Africa by a team of researchers from the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the University of Pretoria. It had been lost to science since 1936, the researchers said, per the AP.
With the help of a sniffer dog, the team found traces of tunnels and discovered a golden mole in 2021. But because there are 21 species of golden moles and some look very similar, the team needed more to be certain that it was a De Winton's. They took environmental DNA samples—the DNA animals leave behind in skin cells, hair, and bodily excretions—but had to wait until 2022 before a De Winton's DNA sample from decades ago was made available by a South African museum to compare. The DNA sequences were a match. The team's research and findings were peer reviewed and published last week in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation.
"We had high hopes, but we also had our hopes crushed by a few people," said researcher Samantha Mynhard. "One De Winton's expert told us, 'you're not going to find that mole. It's extinct.'" The De Winton's golden mole was on a "most wanted lost species" list compiled by the Re:wild conservation group. Others on the list that have been rediscovered include a salamander that was found in Guatemala in 2017, 42 years after its last sighting, and an elephant shrew called the Somali sengi seen in Djibouti in 2019, its first recorded sighting since 1968.
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