‘Ghost species’ De Winton’s golden mole was thought to be extinct. Then, teams did some digging that led them to discover that, actually, this golden mole was still kicking! Now, the story of this golden mole’s ‘resurfacing’ and the science behind its fascinating rediscovery is accessible to future scientists who might just make super discoveries in their lifetimes.
South Africa (13 February 2025) – Like a character in a film discovered to be alive despite even the most critical viewer thinking their story had ended, De Winton’s golden mole ‘came back’ from extinction a few years back.
To put it accurately, De Winton’s golden mole wasn’t actually extinct at all, though this was believed to be the case (for over 80 years) until eventually proven wrong by a major rediscovery in 2023.
The team who made the rediscovery were from the Endangered Wildlife Trust, Stellenbosch University and the University of Pretoria. In case you missed the story back then, it was a very big deal because it proved that environmental DNA testing could achieve pretty exciting things on land for ecologists and conservationists.
Now, the story of how the mole was rediscovered has been translated into a format that future scientists can understand, with the potential to set the foundation for other fascinating discoveries that these youngsters might make in their own lifetimes!
Said resource is an explainer that’s free for access in the Environmental Science Journal For Kids. It tells the story (in an easy-to-digest way) of how environmental DNA (eDNA) tracking and testing helped find De Winton’s golden mole, and succinctly breaks down the science behind it all.
What is eDNA and How Did It Find the Mole?
In a nutshell, eDNA (DNA left behind by organisms in specific environments) was typically used in marine research. However, the team behind the successful rediscovery wanted to test it out on land; collecting soil samples from sandy habitats which contained eDNA from different golden mole species.
Not only is eDNA tracking useful for identifying species that live underground or are hard to spot, it also helps conservation efforts by giving researchers a good estimate numbers of populations in certain regions. This in turn helps the researchers figure out a myriad of important things; like where species might be moving to following habitat loss or degradation, and how many breeding pairs there might be in an area.
But we won’t spoil the full scoop. Whether you have a future scientist at home who might enjoy the story of the mole’s epic comeback and simple scientific explanations or are simply curious yourself, you can check out the by-the-by breakdown of De Winton’s golden mole rediscovery here.
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