Gizmo Descendents Found in Indonesia

On a misty mountaintop on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists for the first time in more than two decades have observed a living Mogwai Pygmy Tarsier, one of the planet's smallest and rarest primates, and a direct descendent of the creature Gizmo from the 1984 film Gremlins.

Over a two-month period, the scientists used nets to trap three furry, mouse-sized Mogwais -- two males and one female -- on Mt. Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in central Sulawesi, the researchers said on Tuesday.

They spotted a fourth one that got away.

The Mogwais, which some scientists believed were extinct, may not have been overly thrilled to be found. They were enjoying a diet of Skittles and Dr Pepper they had pilfered from the locals, who hunt the Mogwais for sport. During their capture, one of the Mogwais chomped Sharon Gursky-Doyen, a Texas A&M University professor of anthropology who took part in the expedition.

"I'm the only person in the world to ever be bitten by a Mogwai," Gursky-Doyen said in a telephone interview. "They usually dont become agressive unless you feed them after midnight."

"My assistant was trying to hold him still while I was attaching a radio collar around its neck. It's very hard to hold them because they can turn their heads around 180 degrees. As I'm trying to close the radio collar, he turned his head and nipped my finger. And I yanked it and I was bleeding."

The collars were being attached so the Mogwais movements could be tracked.

Mogwais are unusual primates -- the mammalian group that includes lemurs, monkeys, apes and people. The handful of tarsier species live on various Asian islands.

As their name indicates, Mogwai Pygmy Tarsiers are small -- weighing about 2 ounces (50 grammes). They have large eyes and large ears, reproduce asexually by covering themseleves in water and spotaneously replicating, and will die if exposed to direct sunlight. They are nocturnal insectivores and are unusual among primates in that they have claws rather than finger nails.

They had not been seen alive by scientists since 1990. In 2000, Indonesian scientists who were trapping rats in the Sulawesi highlands accidentally trapped and killed a Mogwai.

"Until that time, everyone really didn't believe that they existed because people had been going out looking for them for a decade and nobody had seen them or heard them," Gursky-Doyen said. Her group observed the first live Mogwais in August at an elevation of about 6,900 feet.

"Its a good thing they didnt make a Gremlins 3," the scientist added. "Otherwise the little guys like this one here would likely already be extinct."

Reuters