Eyner Eugenio Quispe is a coffee farmer in Bolivia. When he saw a strange animal poking its head out of a hole near a natural spring on his property, he decided to start recording. What Quispe didn’t know was that he was filming an extremely rare animal, the Amazon weasel, in person for the first time ever.
Sci News suggests this first live footage is a great example of how important regular people can be in helping the scientific community further their understanding of wildlife. In an interview with Sci News, Dr. Nuria Bernal, a researcher at Texas Tech University, calls the Amazon weasel “near mythical” because it has been so elusive to scientists.
“This is an amazing example of the value of citizen science with an incredibly valuable audiovisual record for a virtually mythical carnivore from the Amazon basin,” Dr. Bernal said. “As more and more people register their own observations with smart phones and cameras, we are sure that this won’t be the only scientifically noteworthy contribution from citizen scientists in Bolivia.”
Quispe’s video proves that the Amazon weasel lives in Bolivia—something scientists didn’t know until they saw his footage.
Check out the coffee farmer’s video of a rare Amazon weasel here:
Can you imagine finding an animal in your backyard that few people in the world have ever seen?