February 2022

In 2017, Re:wild began a global mission to locate and protect 25 of the most wanted lost species, and since then the team has rediscovered 8 of the species scientists had feared to be globally extinct in the wild. The Togo Mouse from West Africa, and the Dwarf Hutia from Cuba now join an additional 6 species added to the new Re:wild top 25 most wanted lost species list. This rebooted Search for Lost Species was launched this month in collaboration with Tyler Thrasher, an extremely talented artist and conservationist.

The Togo Mouse (Leimacomys buettneri) was last seen in 1890 when it was first collected about 20 km east of Kyabobo Range National Park (KRNP) near the border between Ghana and Togo. Until now, there has been limited effort to locate the species using suitable trapping methodologies, but staff from KRNP believe they know the species and refer to it locally as “Yefuli”, thus hope remains that the species may have survived within the forests of West Africa.   

The Dwarf Hutia (Mesocapromys nanus) is a guinea pig-like rodent from Cuba, last collected in 1951. They are believed to build small platforms with holes as refuges in the dry islets and forest outcrops in the Zapata Swamp. Possible evidence of a nest and some suspicious scat was located in 1978, but continued efforts in this largely inaccessible swampy region are needed to confirm the status of the species.

These species join the Ilin Island Cloudrunner, another small mammal on the original top 25 most wanted list. This quest for lost species continues to inspire hope for the rediscovery of these lesser-known and often overlooked species.