Reading comprehension:exploring the foja
In 2005,researchers from the institute of Science discovered several new species of plants and animals during a trip to the remote Foja mountains of western new guinea.
a team of explorers returned to the foja mountains in the summer of 2007. on this trip,they found an extraordinary rat. it Was enormous. the giant rat might be a species new to science.biologist Martua Sinaga believes this was another important discovery for the region.
"the giant rat is about five times the size of atypical rat,"Sinaga said,picking it up to pose for a photo. "with no fear of humans,it came into camp several times during the trip."the rat came into the camp looking for food and at first the scientists thought it might be a cat. "i have a cat about the same size"explained another researcher,Kris Helgen, "but then i realized this was something different."at 82 centimeters long,weighing 1.4 Kilograms,it is the largest species of rat known anywhere in the world.The scientists also found a previously unrecorded species of possum. both sinaga and Helgen hope to return to the mountains again. They plan tobring a ner team of international scientists with them and to have another chance of discovering new species.