BIOLOGY CENTRE CAS | Czech Scientist Donates 780 Mammals from New Guinea to the National Museum, Including Four New Species

The vast majority of the specimens were collected by the young scientist during a six-month expedition in 2019, when he conducted a systematic survey of mammal diversity along the slopes of Mount Wilhelm (4,509 m a.s.l.), from its foothills to the summit. He worked closely with Indigenous landowners, whose knowledge of the terrain and local fauna proved essential to the success of the expedition. "Local hunters accompanied me in the mountains and helped me locate the animals. Without them, I would not have been able to obtain such data," says František Vejmělka. Additional material was collected by colleagues from the Binatang Research Centre (BRC) in Papua New Guinea during 2021–2022. Their fieldwork was coordinated remotely by František Vejmělka during the COVID pandemic. Another contributor was Daniel Okena, one of the Papuan PhD candidates based in České Budějovice.

Extensive Collection Includes Rodents and Marsupials Ranging from Tiny to Giant

The collection consists of 560 fluid-preserved specimens, approximately 200 skeletal specimens, and 16 study skins. Altogether, it contains 63 species of non-volant mammals representing 32 genera and 10 families. These include rodents, dasyures, bandicoots, cuscuses, possums, and kangaroos. Most of the specimens belong to endemic species found nowhere else in the world. The giant woolly rat Mallomys istapantap is one such species. The largest rodent in Australia and Oceania was first documented and photographed in the wild by the young Czech scientist.

The animals span a remarkable size range, from the smallest rodents weighing just 12 grams to kangaroos weighing up to 9 kilograms. Among the rodents, giant woolly rats of the genus Mallomys dominate, reaching lengths of up to 85 centimetres and weights of up to 2 kilograms. The collection includes, among other material, eight complete specimens of the subalpine woolly rat, one study skin, and ten skeletal specimens of this species, as well as representatives of two additional species of giant woolly rats.

Four New Species Instead of One

Of particular importance is the type material of newly collected, previously undescribed species of rainforest mice belonging to the genus Lorentzimys. This small montane rodent had long been regarded as a single species. However, new data, including genetic analyses, indicate that four distinct species occur within a relatively small area of northeastern New Guinea.

The discovery was facilitated by the use of a simple method that had not previously been employed in this region: pitfall traps consisting of buckets buried in the ground. This technique made it possible to document extremely rare species, including members of the genus Microhydromys, among the rarest Australo-Papuan rodents, previously known from only seven specimens.

The collection includes study skins. Photo: František Vejmělka.

Mount Wilhelm as a Global Mammal Diversity Hotspot

"With more than 60 species of non-volant mammals occurring along a single mountain, Mount Wilhelm represents a globally significant centre of mammal diversity. These findings highlight the importance of studying and conserving mountain regions that still retain continuous rainforest from lowland to montane elevations. Moreover, we discovered an unusual pattern of species richness, with the number of species increasing with elevation up to the upper forest limit, more than three kilometres above sea level," emphasises František Vejmělka. Such a pattern is exceptional in tropical regions and suggests that the mountain ecosystems of New Guinea represent an evolutionarily unique and highly interesting environment.

The collection will be housed in the National Museum in Prague. "This is a monumental body of material of a kind possessed by very few museum collections of comparable size. Furthermore, collection material from the Australian region is extremely uncommon in museums of Central Europe. It represents one of the most successful examples of ongoing collaboration between a scientific institution and a natural history museum," says Petr Benda, curator of the mammal collection at the National Museum.

The collection will serve as a reference resource for future taxonomic research and will facilitate further genetic analyses as well as studies of the impacts of climate change on mountain ecosystems. Tissue samples from the New Guinea collections are already being studied internationally for parasites, viruses, and other pathogens. The material housed in Prague will be accessible to the international research community, and a substantial part of the collection will also be donated to the National Museum and Art Gallery of Papua New Guinea to support the further development of zoological research in the country.

Species Overview