New Guinea’s subalpine woolly rat is the rodent of legends. The New Guinean woolly rat doesn’t make itself easy to find, but Czech Academy of Sciences doctoral candidate František Vejmělka recently managed to make history with the help of local guides. Along the way he documented and genetically identified 61 species of non-flying rodents and marsupials, but it was his firsthand encounters with the woolly rat that stood out from the rest. Despite their moderate size, the university announcement describes the animal as a “striking and formidable creature.”The video footage of the woolly rat was captured near this location in the Guinean rainforest. Credit: František VejmělkaWhile tropical biodiversity across Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia is well-studied, the Australasian regions remain largely unstudied.