Red-crested tree rat is adorable, not extinct

The last red-crested tree rat was spotted in 1898. After 113 years, and several searches, the species was assumed to be extinct. That is, until this one showed up on a public handrail at 9:30 pm on May 4, in Colombia's El Dorado Nature Reserve. Cute! And not dead!

Via Joan

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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Related to http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388227/Pink-kitten-The-real-Pink-Panthers-fur-changed-colour-bathed-cement.html ?
ashabot

Yay!
Purplecat

Turned up on a public handrail after being sought for over a century. Absolutely brilliant. That’s like the story of Nothomyrmecia, again found only by accident.
Tone

Its always the cute ones that end up eating your face. You can see it in his eyes. I bet his kind thrives on human face.
futnuh

The red-crested tree rat was subsequently trapped, humanely euthanized, photographed beside a copy of the May 4 daily newspaper, and preserved in a jar of formaldehyde …
Susan Oliver

Yet!
Matt Staggs

I never thought I’d want to snuggle something called a “tree rat,” but I guess there’s a first time for everything. Adorable!
- Anonymous
  
  Yeah, “tree rat” is such bad press, they should have done like the other tree rats and given themselves a cool new name, like squirrel.
JArmstrong

Funny, I’ve always thought ‘tree rats’ were squirrels. And ‘flying rats’ are pigeons. Glad to see there is a fuzzier and cuter kind of tree rat (or rat, in general) out there.

Now For My Probably Too Simplistic Protocol/Ethics Question: When we find a previously-thought-extinct animal or a nigh-extinct critter, is it appropriate to obtain sufficient amount of DNA from said animal in order to recreate it in a lab? And repopulate its home terrain with it?
Anonymous

Aren’t squirrels the original Tree Rats?
arbitraryaardvark

lazarus taxon. I knew there was a word (phrase) for these critters, but it took me awhile to remember it.
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/lazarus-species-13-extinct-animals-found-alive/monito-del-
jaypee

NOT COOL. Surly a sign of the APOCALYPSE.
Ipo

That is much more a “Climbing Beaver” than a Tree Rat.
Anonymous

North America has it’s own imperiled “red tree vole” — one of the most arboreal small mammals known. It lives almost its entire life in the canopy of the old growth forests in western Oregon and NW California feeding on the needles of conifers like Douglas-fir. It is very sensitive to logging because fragmentation of the canopy prevents the vole from dispersing from tree to tree. It’s also an important prey item for the threatened Northern Spotted Owl.
Anonymous

I just love him! Or Her ~ Simply adorable! So cute!! It’s nice to see that humans have not destroyed everything yet.
sockdoll

POKÃ‰MON ARE REAL!
Calimecita

I know, I know, isn’t it the cutest? Here at my lab, we spent a good part of yesterday exclaiming over this beauty. It’s not just a mammal: it’s an echimyid! And since we study caviomorph rodents, especially the octodontoid lineage which includes the spiny rats, we’re especially excited.
And I can only imagine what Dr Emmons must have felt when she watched these photographs of an animal she identified as a distinct species based only on collection material. Even its name sounds nice: Santamartamys…

BTW, this rat looks cute because it’s not a typical rat (“true” rats belong to a whole other rodent lineage).
Anonymous

Let the breeding programs for the pet stores begin.
Anonymous

Mini Beaver!