Solomon Islands
Vangunu Island
Locals described a giant tree-dwelling rat for decades before scientists believed them and found it.
Somewhere in the canopy above, something four times the size of a common rat gnaws through hard tree nuts with teeth evolved for the purpose. For decades, villagers on Vangunu Island told scientists about the giant rat living in their trees. The scientists didn't believe them. Then in 2010, a felled tree dropped one into a researcher's lap.
Vangunu Island in the Solomon Islands' Western Province is home to the Vangunu giant rat (Uromys vika), formally described by science in 2017 — the first new rodent species documented in the Solomons in over 80 years. Growing to around half a kilogram, it lives exclusively in the tree canopy of unlogged primary forest. The discovery vindicated local ecological knowledge that had been dismissed as folklore for generations. A small eco-camp run by the community conservation group hosts visitors, offering guided walks along the same trails where the species was confirmed. The surrounding forest has never been commercially logged, making it one of the most intact lowland rainforest tracts remaining in the Western Province. Ngali nut trees tower through the canopy — the same species whose nuts the giant rat cracks open overhead.
Solo
Walk through primary forest where indigenous knowledge proved science wrong. The eco-camp is intimate, the trails are quiet, and the chance of spotting one of Earth's rarest and most recently described mammals makes every rustle in the canopy worth investigating.
Friends
A wildlife-focused expedition with a story that gets better the more you tell it. Trekking through unlogged forest at a conservation camp, looking up at the canopy where a species hid from science for decades — the adventure is intellectual as much as physical.
- The Vangunu giant rat (Uromys vika) was formally described by science in 2017 — the first rodent species new to science documented in the Solomons in over 80 years, confirmed when a felled tree revealed one to a researcher in 2010.
- Local villagers had described the rat — calling it vika and reporting it lived in the tree canopy — for decades before scientists took them seriously; the discovery vindicated knowledge that had been dismissed as folklore.
- The rat grows to around half a kilogram, roughly four times the size of a common rat, and gnaws through hard tree nuts using specialised teeth; the canopy where it lives is accessible on guided forest walks from the conservation camp.
- A small eco-camp run by the local conservation community hosts visitors; the walks follow the same trails where the discovery was made, through forest that has never been commercially logged.
Village-cooked reef fish and garden vegetables at a conservation camp on the jungle edge.
Ngali nuts cracked fresh from the forest canopy where the giant rat was finally found.
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