It was thought to be gone for good;  yet another sad case of a species gone extinct.

Until just recently.

It eats insects, lives in Cuba, and loves the mountains.  At least, that's where it lives.  It's known as an almiqui (ahl-mee-KEE), and it looks like a brown woolly badger with a long, pink-tipped snout.  It can grow to be nearly 20 inches, and raises hopes "that it will not wind up in the catalog of the irretrievable animals disappearing from the face of the Earth," according to Prensa Latina, a Cuban news agency.

Not surprising, the animal is nocturnal (which is probably why we haven't found it), and burrows underground during the daytime.

The farmer who found the furry little guy named it "Alejandrito."  It was a male, and weighed 24 ounces.  Veterinarians who examined Alejandrito declared him in perfect health.

The almiqui was first described by German naturalist Wilham Peters in 1861.  Since then, only 37 of the animals known by the scientific name Solenodon Cubanus, like Alejandrito, have been captured.  The last reported sightings of the creatures were in 1972 in the eastern province of Guantanamo, and 25 years later in 1999 in the eastern province of Holguin.

Just another cased closed for cryptozoology.

Mysterious Mass Discovered In Lake
by Jonathan Drake
S: Yahoo News (8-18-03)

It's a gigantic mysterious mass, and it's about the size of a whale.  Even stranger, it was found, not lying in the shallows of some ocean, but rather about 30 feet down in one of Ireland's deepest lakes.

How deep?  About 250 feet (75m).  Muckross Lake, as it's commonly known, seems to have been the home of some large animal.  The huge mass was found during an acoustic survey of stocks of arctic char.  Paddy O'Sullivan, National Parks and Wildlife Service regional manager, said a group of international scientists were studying the char using very sophisticated equipment to take soundings when they found ... well ... it.

What was it doing?  Apparently just floating about 10 meters down.  Interestingly, its shape tapers off at either end.

"They found something very unusual. A large mass within the lake," said O'Sullivan.  "At first I thought it might be a seal but they said it was much, much bigger than that -- it was as big as the biggest whale."

Unfortunately, the mystery mass may not be solved for awhile as cutbacks in research budgets mean they do not stretch to hiring the sophisticated equipment for another survey.

"The only way to find out what it is is to go back and look again and see if it has moved. The fact that there has been a lot of interest may mean someone will come along with funding," he said.

Rare Hopping Mouse Found
by Vincent Rains
S: ABC News Online (9-30-03)

A fascinating hopping little mouse that hasn't been seen in New South Wales since the mid 1800s was recently found north of Broken Hill in the far west of the State.

It was caught in a trap set up by researchers in the Sturt National Park, and since then seven of the animals have been captured.

Called a dusky mouse, the manager of the park, Ingrid Witter, says they are beautiful little creatures.

"Anyone who sees them will fall in love, it's just absolutely amazing.  And who knows what else we may come up with up here once we start looking."

Indeed, the world undoubtedly has even more creatures waiting to be discovered or rediscovered.  We need only start looking.

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