Rare Otter spotted for the first time in 100 years

 To say sightings of Lutra sumatrana, better known as the hairy-nosed otter, in Borneo are rare would be an understatement. The most recent spotting occurred after one of the otters was struck by a car and killed in Brunei. The last live sighting occurred more than 100 years ago.

New photos captured by a camera trap, however, have given conservationists hope for the species on the island.  The camera traps captured photos and video of several different otter species. Initially, researchers believed they had only captured images of smooth-coated otters and Asian small-clawed otters.

Close examination, however, revealed the unique traits of the hairy-nosed otter: a flatter, longer head, a white throat, and darker fur.

Original article here.

The traps also captured images of other otters including this Cynogale bennettii:

Reclusive primate caught on camera for first time

Wildlife researchers in Sri Lanka have photographed one of the world's most reclusive primates for the first time.

Sightings of the Horton Plains slender loris -- a small nocturnal primate with extremely thin arms and legs and huge round eyes -- are so rare that the creature has only been seen four times since 1937.

Conservationists feared the species had become extinct during a 63-year gap between sightings from 1939 to 2002.

The pictures show a 20-centimeter long male adult sitting on a forest branch forest. Conservationists have discovered it appears to have shorter and sturdier limbs than other loris; a possible adaptation for the cooler, high-altitude montane -- or cloud -- forest in which it lives.

Original article here.

10 New Deep-Sea Creatures

Some of the below ten new possible species are so strange, it is hard to know which direction they swim or where their mouths are.

The images were captured by researchers with a remotely operated vehicle between 2,300 feet and 12,000 feet deep along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the largest mountain range on Earth, which runs down the center of the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and Africa on the east and the Americas on the west.

Three of the species, which look like colorful wavy worms, belong to a group of creatures called Enteropneust, which is believed to be the evolutionary link between backbone and invertebrate animals. Previously only a few specimens of the group, from the Pacific Ocean, were known to science.

Read the article to learn more about each creature.

Original article here.