An international team of researchers has discovered hog-nosed shrew rat having extra long pubic hair. It was discovered in remote, mountainous north peninsula of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. The rodent was earlier unknown to science.

In early 2013, the rat was found in a trap on Mount Dako. Kevin Rowe of Museum Victoria said that at first glance only they knew that the creature was new. The rat has big, hog-like nose, long hind legs, flappy ears and stocky body and long pubic hair.

Researchers are not sure for which purpose the rat uses its pubic hair. They think it might help the rat in some kind of reproductive way. Not only males, but even females have long pubic hairs. “It's got a very narrow mouth opening. It can't open its mouth very much. It probably eats worms and insect larvae, just kind of slurping them up”, said Rowe.

There is one more difference between other rodents and the hog-nosed rat and that is the color of their incisors. Other rodents have orange-coloured incisors, but the newly discovered rat’s incisors are white, pointed and sharp.

The critters are around 45 centimeters in length including tails and weigh around 250 grams. Main aim of carrying out a project on Sulawesi Island is to explore the evolution and diversity of small mammals in the Indo-Australian area. The newly found rats have been preserved and taken to a museum in Indonesia.

The project on Sulawesi Island aims to understand the evolution and diversity of small mammals in the Indo-Australian area. "[Sulawesi Island is] an extremely unique area on earth, on the nexus of the Australian and Asian continents," Rowe said. "So we expected to find new species, but we've been quite surprised."