Perched on a remote mountain top and surrounded by lowlands, Mabu is what’s known as a “sky island” and is the largest rainforest in southern Africa. BBC environment correspondent Jonah Fisher went to Mabu with a team of scientists who have discovered dozens of new species there, helping to convince Mozambique to protect it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cLet me get my magic spoon,\u201d Dr Gimo Daniel says with a smile.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to imagine anyone taking more delight in their work than the 36-year-old Mozambican beetle expert.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re crouched around a small hole in the dirt not far from our camp in the centre of Mabu forest. Dr Daniel\u2019s mission, like that of almost everyone on our expedition, is to find things that science has not seen before.<\/p>\n
Dung beetles are Dr Daniel\u2019s specialty and he chuckles as he pulls out a big plastic tub of bait – his own faeces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The smell is as you\u2019d expect. Pungent and impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
Dr Daniel tells me that he has already discovered what he believes are 15 new species of dung beetles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can smell it up to 50 meters from here, so they come as fast as they can,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s brunch.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Watch: the secret to trapping dung beetles<\/figcaption><\/p>\n\n
Twenty years ago, Mabu was a secret to all but the locals.<\/p>\n
It was ‘discovered’ for the outside world by Prof Julian Bayliss in 2004. An explorer and ecologist who now lives in north Wales, he was surveying satellite images of northern Mozambique when he came across a previously unknown dark green patch.<\/p>\n
A first expedition the following year confirmed that although locals had been hunting in the forest it was in incredibly good condition and its size at 75 square kilometres made Mabu the largest single block of rainforest in southern Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like \u2013 oh my God \u2013 this is phenomenal,\u201d Prof Bayliss recalls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Tim Brammer<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Mount Mabu Bush Viper or Atheris mabuensis <\/i>is unique to the forest<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
BBC\/Tony Jolliffe<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nProf Julian Bayliss has been discovering new species in Mabu forest for almost 20 years<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
In early expeditions to Mabu, one of which I joined in 2009 while working as a BBC correspondent in southern Africa, Prof Bayliss was at the forefront of a ‘gold rush’ of discoveries, quickly finding several new species of chameleon, snake and butterfly.\u202f <\/p>\n
In all Prof Bayliss says they\u2019ve found at least 25 new species, and that’s not even counting the dung beetles, many of which still need to be officially recognised.<\/p>\n
What makes Mabu so special is its geography. A medium altitude rainforest, it protrudes above Mozambique\u2019s lowlands, makes it effectively a ‘sky island’.<\/p>\n
That means most of the animals and insects that live there have no way of meeting and breeding with other populations, increasing the chances of them evolving in isolation into something unique and new to science.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The expedition the BBC joined this year at Prof Bayliss’ invitation was the first time a team of scientists had based themselves right in the centre of the forest.<\/p>\n
Mabu was in part protected by Mozambique\u2019s long history of civil war. The longest of which ended in 1992. It was also helped by the fact that it\u2019s just so hard to get there. <\/p>\n
After driving five hours along dirt roads all of the camping gear, food and equipment is loaded on to the backs and heads of more than sixty porters.<\/p>\n
While we, and the scientists, adjusted our walking boots and dropped hydration salts in our water bottles, the porters, many of them wearing just flipflops, marched up Mount Mabu\u2019s steep slopes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Tony Jolliffe<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nErica Tovela believes she has found a new fish species from the genus amphilius<\/i><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
One of the first to find something new is Erica Tovela, a freshwater fish expert from Mozambique\u2019s Natural History Museum. In the stream that runs through camp she catches a type of small catfish she\u2019s not seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that we have a new species for this area,\u201d she says with a smile as she holds up a see-through bag of dead fish. (They will be preserved in formaldehyde for further analysis and comparison with other similar species). \u201cAmazing. It will be the first new species for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The process of definitively identifying a new species can take years. It involves writing a peer-reviewed paper in a journal in which the differences between the new discovery and its closest relatives are outlined and accepted by other scientists.<\/p>\n
The next step for Ms Tovela is to get the DNA of her fish analysed and detailed descriptions and images circulated. And what might be the name?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be something\u202fmabuensis<\/i>,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice way of saying we have one specific species that\u2019s from Mabu.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Tony Jolliffe<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe water in the centre of Mabu forest is so pure that the scientists drink it directly from the stream. <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Mabu\u2019s forest is in good condition but that\u2019s not to say that some things haven\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
The large mammals that once inhabited it like lions, rhinos and buffalos have all been hunted out, most likely for food during the war. Deforestation has also taken a toll, though not as badly as other forests in southern Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s very visible that forests (in southern Africa) that I’ve been to just 15 to 20 years ago have now disappeared, cut down for many different reasons,\u201d says Prof Ara Monadjem, an expert in small mammals from the University of Eswatini, who was on the trip.<\/p>\n
At Mabu the deforestation has so far been limited but locals are certainly hunting. Camera traps show hunters carrying animals they\u2019ve caught and we see physical traps made from car springs set just off the tracks through the forest. <\/p>\n
But at the same time species of smaller mammals are also being discovered. They included a horseshoe bat called\u202fRhinolophus mabuensis<\/i>\u202fand a dwarf musk shrew which scientists are still in the process of naming and describing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Ara Monadjem<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThis Horseshoe bat, the Rhinolophus mabuensis<\/i> is unique to Mabu forest<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
Julian Bayliss<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nCamera traps in the forest have taken photos of both live animals and hunters<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Not everyone on the expedition is looking for new species. Bird experts Claire Spottiswoode and Callan Cohen have a very specific mission. To find evidence that one of Africa\u2019s rarest birds is still alive.<\/p>\n
The Namuli apalis<\/i> only lives at altitude and there are fears that a combination of the destruction of forest elsewhere and warming temperatures are pushing the small yellow and black bird towards extinction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Ross Gallardy<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Namuli apalis<\/i> only lives in Mozambique and on two mountains, Namuli and Mabu<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n