Just over two months ago, WWF announced the discovery of an unknown mammal in the forests of Borneo (see Mysterious Mammal Photographed in Borneo Rainforest). At the time, the only clues as to the identity of the mammal were a few fuzzy photographs of a long-tailed, reddish-brown mammal that were snapped by a motion-sensitive camera.

Two months on, scientists are still baffled as to the identity of the creature. Local people, when shown the photos, reported never having seen such an animal and efforts to capture a live specimen have failed.

Despite the lack of new information, one expert may have found an explanation as to the identity of the mystery animal. According to an article in this month's issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine ('Mystery Beast Revealed'), Erik Meijaard, an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy in Indonesia, suggests that the animal is not a new species of carivore as first thought, but is instead a giant flying squirrel (Petaurista petaurista).

Photo © WWF Kayan Mentarang & D. Augeri