Major expedition uncovers new species in Bolivia

We entered the forest where we left it the night before. Extending in front of us was a long line of translucent plastic sheeting, punctuated every few meters with a stake and a bucket dug into the ground. Small mammal biologist Nuria Bernal Hoverud and her study team worked hard the previous day, laying out the sampling transect in the hopes of catching small mammals in Bolivia’s super-biodiverse Madidi National Park. The transect was so long, I thought there were sure to be loads of exotic mice and other mammals in the buckets the next morning. But here we were, looking into each one in turn, but finding no mammals. Instead, there were spiders – many, many spiders – and in the bottoms of two of the buckets, a couple small brown frogs.

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