Everest Expedition Discovers Exotic Species

Scientists from Conservation International and Disney's Animal Kingdom recently launched a two-month scientific expedition into six regions of the Tibetan "Sacred Lands" in the mountains of Southwest China and Nepal.


"The fact that we found so many new species in such a harsh environment, as well as documented several rare and endangered species is good news for these two regions," said Leeanne Alonso, the expedition's lead scientist and vice president of the CI's Rapid Assessment Program.

Some species discovered:

-Giant hornets so deadly locals call them "Yak Killers".
-Jumping "Yeti" mice.
-A new grasshopper species in which the males hitch piggy-back rides on the females.
-Baby blue-faced golden monkeys, the region's largest primates.
-Hamster-like pikas that eat their own feces.
-A couple of new frog species, eight new insect species, and ten new species of ants to add the more than 11,000 already known.

Golden Monkey
Rhinopithecus roxellana

LiveScience.com

This is realy neat.
Just go's to show how much biodiversity our planet has.

On a side note, if I'm remembering dates correctly, this is the third discovery of this magnitude in the last 14 months.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 4/7/2006 by iori_komei]

It truly is amazing how little we do know about our own planet considering how smart we are supposed to be. Not sure that im very happy about the giant hornets, we have some scary wasps here and i hate the bloody things. The monkeys cute though.

Dont think id want to cuddle the hampster like creature either. Breath mint anyone!!

Those are some of the species on Noah's Ark that never came back down out of the mountains. It's the truth!

Noah's Ark fell on Mount Aerarat(SP?), not Mt. Everest though.

I want one of those Golden monkey's, so cute.

(This is NOT a one line post.)





I.K

[edit on 4/7/2006 by iori_komei]

Many new species of animals, insects and plants discovered in the Mount Everest region of the Tibet? The Himalayas? Well, well, it's only a matter of time, then, that someone will start noticing giant footprints and the spoor of the Yeti or, as commonly known, The Abominable Snowman.

Every time that I hear of the discovery of some new species of animal, especially larger animals, ie. monkeys, I always think about the Yeti, the Abominable Snowman and even the Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Not that these discoveries mean anything specific, it simply means that the discovery of a Yeti is, well, possible.

It's a big planet and we have certainly not explored and studied all of it yet. In my mind, anything is possible especially when there is so much folklore and so many sightings by those who live in various regions.