AN ASIAN food market may seem an unlikely setting for a major zoological find. But a rodent intended for the kebab skewer is not only an unknown species, but is the first member of a whole new family.
The rock rat, or kha-nyou as locals call it, was spotted by Robert Timmins of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society in a Laos market. “It was for sale on a table next to some vegetables,” he says. “I knew immediately it was something I had never seen before.” Timmins and his team have subsequently trapped the animal on rocky limestone…
