November 2023 – 87 years after its last sighting in 1936, a team of scientists from EWT and the University of Pretoria have been able to rediscover ‘De Winton’s Golden Mole’, at Port Nolloth in Northern Cape. This search was done in collaboration with Re:wild, under their ‘Search for Lost Species’ program.
Before any details, we must ask the big question : Why has it been undetected for nearly 90 years? Well, quite literally because it is underground! Apart from being small, elusively shimmery (to blend with sand), and highly sound-sensitive, this golden mole lives in deep burrows, and smartly covers its tracks too : leaving no tunnels behind.
To combat these challenges, the scientists used a sniffer dog (Jessie) trained to identify golden mole scents, and environmental DNA (eDNA).
eDNA is defined by the USGS as ‘mitochondrial or nuclear DNA that is released from an organism into the environment’. eDNA can be released through skin, hair, carcasses, and faeces. Thus, the scientists could narrow down the areas of inhabitation by collecting soil samples, and amplifying and sequencing DNA evidence. In total, they collected and sequenced over 100 soil samples. Due to other golden mole species in the area though, they declared a confident match only a year after their surveys.
This methods’ success in detection can prove useful in rediscovering many more species, and aid the overall conservation effort.
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- Medha Gopalakrishnan
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*Disclaimer: This article has also been posted to our Medium account . NernstNaK is the rightful owner of this work on both our website and Medium, and thus stresses that there has been no plagiarism or copying on either account.*
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