Researchers in Yayu believe they found a mouse unseen since 1927

Researchers in south-western Ethiopia believe they have found the Ethiopian water mouse, an animal known from a single specimen collected in 1927 and described in 1928. National Geographic reported on November 9, 2026, that Mengistu Wale of the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute pulled a large brown rodent from a trap and recognized the white spots behind its ears. He said he was 95 percent sure. The team then caught two more and matched their features to the 1928 description. Genetic tests were still underway, with a public announcement planned for November 10, so the identification was not finished in the lab when the magazine went to press.

The animals were not in the middle of the forest. They were in the transition zone of the Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, in a stream beside farmland where people wash clothes. The reserve is one of the last places wild arabica coffee still grows. Thomas Giarla of Siena University, who was not on the survey, said the mouse is distinctive enough that an expert's eye may hold up, and he still wants to see the genetic data. The species remains listed as critically endangered. The news is these three captures and a comparison with the old description. It is not yet a published genetic confirmation.