[FReepaholic]

...looks like a cross between a cat and a fox...

Lessee, that would be a cox....or a fat.

[bobdsmith]

phew for a second there I worried they had found crab people

[nkycincinnatikid]

Just a giant Sumatran rat swept there by the sunami

[Atlas Sneezed]

I find neither cats nor foxes "strange", and would find an imagined cross between them (a furry creature with four legs, a tail, sharp teeth and claws, to be not particularly "strange."

I guess they need to sell papers, to hype up what is still an interesting discovery.

[johniegrad]

Lessee, that would be a cox....or a fat.

Correct. The males of the species would be "cox" and the females would be "fat".

[phoenix0468]

It's catdog.

[boomop1]

Chupacabra

[de Buillion]

Chupacabra lives!

[bnelson44]

You know in this day and age, there really is no excuse for not having a picture of the beast.

[Tribune7]

It's the dreaded Russian squirrel.

[visualops]

"Swiss-based environmental group WWF said on Monday its researchers photographed the strange animal, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, in the dense, central mountainous rainforests of Borneo....
Pictures of the animal were first taken by WWF researchers in 2003, the photos kept unpublished by the WWF as research continued. The WWF decided to make public the photos with the release of a book about Borneo, to be published on Tuesday."

So they've had pics and been researching for 3 years, but aren't showing the pics until they release their new book?? Yeah it's all about science and nature, not money. Sure.

[TC Rider]

fossa?

[SteveMcKing]

Fisher Cat

[satchmodog9]

Already discovered in the front row of White House press briefings years ago.

[Unmarked Package]

"Swiss-based environmental group WWF said on Monday its researchers photographed the strange animal, which looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, in the dense, central mountainous rainforests of Borneo."

Foxes are in the Family Canidae with dogs. OMG, dogs are doing it with cats! Can the Apocalypse be far behind!? :-)

[Diddle E. Squat]

Or a Jackinthebox...

"Go Carnivores!"

[aculeus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4501152.stm


'New mammal' seen in Borneo woods
By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website




The creature, believed to be carnivorous, was spotted in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, which lies in Indonesian territory on Borneo.

The team which discovered it, led by biologist Stephan Wulffraat, is publishing full details in a new book on Borneo and its wildlife.

"You don't find new mammals that often, and to do so must be extraordinary," said Callum Rankine, head of the species programme at WWF-UK.

"We've got camera traps there, which are passive devices relying on infra-red beams across forest paths," he told the BBC News website.

"Lots of animals come past - it's much easier than pushing through the forest itself - and when an animal cuts the beam, two cameras catch images from the front and back."

Not a lemur


So far, two images are all that exist. But they were enough to convince Nick Isaac from the Institute of Zoology in London that the animal may indeed be new.
"The photos look most like a lemur," he told the BBC News website. "But there certainly shouldn't be lemurs in Borneo."

These long-tailed primates are confined to the island of Madagascar.

"It's more likely to be a viverrid - that's the family which includes the mongoose and civets - which is a very poorly known group," Dr Isaac said.

"One of the photos clearly shows the length of the tail and how muscley it is; civets use their tails to balance in trees, so this new animal may spend chunks of its time up trees too."

That could be one reason why it has not been spotted before. Another could be that access to the heart of Borneo is becoming easier as population centres expand and roads are built.

The WWF says this is the heart of the issue. It accuses the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia, which each own parts of Borneo, of encouraging the loss of native jungle by allowing the development of giant palm oil plantations.

Last week Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, chief minister of Sarawak, the larger Malaysian state on Borneo, said that such claims are unfounded and part of a smear campaign.

He told the BBC News website that palm oil plantations are mainly sited on land which had previously been cleared for cultivation or are in "secondary jungle".

But the WWF says species like the new viverrid - if new viverrid it be - are threatened by such development.

It is concerned that other as yet unknown creatures may go extinct before their existence can be documented.

The group is planning to capture the new species in a live trap so it can be properly studied and described.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4501152.stm

Published: 2005/12/06 01:21:11 GMT

© BBC MMV

[aculeus]

You don't find new mammals that often, and to do so must be extraordinary Callum Rankine

[TChad]

Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Mayor: What do you mean, biblical?
Ray: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor. Real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies...
Venkman: Rivers and seas boiling!
Egon: 40 years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanos...
Winston: The dead rising from the grave!
Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... Mass hysteria!

[ColdSteelTalon]

Its the CHUPACABRA !!!

[manwiththehands]

It's PROOF of evolution!

(tongue-in-cheek)