Extinct De Winton’s Golden Mole With Super-Hearing Powers Spotted for the First Time Since 1936

Another extinct animal thought to be long extinct was alive. The De Winton's golden mole, which was deemed extinct in 1936, was spotted for the first time in South Africa.

De Winton's Golden Mole Not Yet Extinct?

A mole with a shimmering golden coat that was thought to be extinct in 1936 after all signs of the animal had vanished has been found again in South Africa. The blind burrower with "super-hearing powers," also known as De Winton's golden mole, was rediscovered near Port Nolloth on South Africa's west coast by a group of researchers from the University of Pretoria and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).

The small creature, about the size of a hamster, is easy to overlook because it lives underground most of the time and stays away from people.

The diamond and mineral mining activities in Africa had put this specific species in danger, and when it vanished from scientific records 86 years ago, scientists believed it had become extinct.

However, with the aid of a sniffer dog and the DNA from a sister golden mole, scientists could locate it and follow it to secret tunnels on a beach.

In order to determine whether the method would work, researchers started their search in 2020 with samples from the critically endangered Van Zyl's golden mole, which is De Winton's sister species.

The De Winton's golden moles are unique to sub-Saharan Africa; they have only ever been discovered in the vicinity of Port Nolloth. After completing the pilot research, the team decided to search for the elusive species along the West Coast in 2021.

The group explored the 985-foot-long beach with Jessie, a border collie, acting as their sniffer dog, to find little tunnels hidden in the sand. The group explored the 985-foot-long beach with Jessie, a border collie, acting as their sniffer dog, to find little tunnels hidden in the sand.

The golden moles on the beach were then the subject of additional morphological and genetic study, and they weren't a match.

The missing piece of evidence was discovered in 2022 at the Port Nolloth Museum, which had an antique De Winton's Golden Mole specimen in its holdings.

Several of its genes had been sequenced by a different group of researchers, enabling EWT to compare the results with the soil samples, and it was a match.

Samantha Mynhardt, a biologist at Stellenbosch University, said they had high hopes to find it. However, they were also crushed when an expert told them there was no chance they could see it as it was already extinct.

"One De Winton's expert told us, 'You're not going to find that mole. It's extinct,'" Mynhardt said.

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Extinct Animals Spotted Alive

It's not the first time an extinct animal has been found alive. For instance, the echidna named after David Attenborough, which many thought was already extinct, was recently spotted. The ancient echidna was spotted in a rainforest in Indonesia.

James Kempton conducted a scientific mission to Indonesia's New Guinea's Cyclops Mountains. The group wanted to make a case for more protection of the biodiverse island in order to protect it.

Their search was productive when, for the first time, they saw signs of the long-beaked echidna named after the biologist and natural historian David Attenborough. The specimen of a dead animal kept in a museum for decades was the only known example of the species. But that was before the expedition's echidna was recently sighted.

Another study proposed that fish houting from the North Sea were not extinct because they resembled European whitefish. DNA samples from many of the museum's houses- some date back more than 250 years- were donated to the University of Amsterdam and the Natural History Museum in London. After that, they compared the fish's DNA to that of other living, closely related species to build a phylogenetic tree. The researchers discovered almost no genetic differences between Coregonus lavaretus, the European whitefish, and Coregonus oxyrinchus, the houting.

According to the University of Amsterdam's Rob Kroes, the first author, the houting isn't extinct because they are European whitefish today.