Monito del Monte

Considered a “living fossil,” because it is the only surviving member of an order of opossums called Microbiotheria that went extinct some 40 million years ago, the monito del monte resembles moreso a strange kind of rat than a marsupial that climbs trees with ease. But the monito del monte gliroides), whose name means “little mountain monkey” in English, is a unique species closely related to Australian pouched mammals like the kangaroo. Some scientists even speculate it migrated from Australia to South America during the prehistoric Eocene era before the ancient supercontinent Gondwana split up.

The intriguing monito del monte is only slightly larger than a mouse, with a long tail, brown fur, round ears, and black rings around its eyes. A nocturnal animal, it is found in the temperate rainforests of southern Chile from the Bio Bio region to Chiloe Island, and Lago Nahuel Huapi in Argentina.

A few years ago, a scientist from Austral University in Valdivia, Chile, claimed the monito del monte may actually be half-reptile because of their low metabolic rate and their astounding variation in body temperature during activity. Still, there is considerable scientific debate about whether it can indeed be called a “reptile with fur” and how much the species has evolved from its ancient past.

In recent years, as scientific methods for tracking the animal have improved, the species is now considered to be relatively abundant within its small range, yet it is a rare animal - the last of it's kind – and remains a conservation priority and a vulnerable species.