TWO wildlife species from Mindanao are included in the world’s list of newly described species for 2023, this was announced by the BBC Wildlife and shared by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Davao Region (DENR-Davao) in its Facebook post.
These new wildlife species are the gymnures Podogymnura intermedia (P. intermedia), which are members of Podogymnura genus, and the P. minima, which was previously considered as a subspecies of P. truei but is now proclaimed as a new species, based on an article by the BBC Wildlife.
According to the article, the P. intermedia was discovered on the peak of Mt. Hamiguitan in Davao Oriental and Mt. Kampalili in Davao Oro.
“The said species are shrew-like due to its golden-brown streaks in its fur and pointed nose but are actually gymnures, likewise called as hairy hedgehogs or moonrats,” the article said.
While P. minima, the smallest podogymnura species, was found in Mt. Kitanglad in Bukidnon.
As stated in the BCC Wildlife article, Laurence Heanery of the Negaunee Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago said the Philippines has a “highly distinct” habitat where each mountain has its own endemic species.
“One of the highly distinct things about the Philippines is that every isolated mountain or little mountain range where we have done surveys is that each and every one has several species that occur nowhere else - not even on adjacent mountain ranges on the same island,” Heanery said.
SunStar Davao reached out to DENR-Davao for further details on the newly-discovered species but has yet to give a response as of press time.
The other discovered species that are introduced as new to science include DiCaprio’s snail-eating snake from Panama and Colombia, the stream treefrog from Ecuador, and the bent-toed gecko from the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste.