The latter had hugeramiications for Timor. The intro-
duction of iron allowed more large-scale harvesting of sandle-
wood than had previously been possible with more primitive
implements. Iron tools would also have allowed massive forest
clearance for agriculture. Today only 15% of Timor’s primary
forests remains, all of it in isolated and mountainous regions.
Exactly when iron wasirst introduced to Timor is not known,
but it was certainly a valuable commodity by the time the
Chinese trade records were written.
Commerce with foreign traders led toconlictbetween
Timorese villages over access to limited resources. This neces-
sitated the building of heavilyfortiied enclosures.By the time
this building program had begun, the giant rats wereextinct.
Not a single giant rat specimen has been found in any of the
archaeologicalexcavations of these forts to date. Other, smaller
rat species have been recovered, as have more recently intro-
ducedlarger animals such as dogs, deer and cattle.
Given how abundant the giant rats were in earlier archaeo-
logicalexcavations, it’s incredibly unlikely to think that their
fossils were missed. It’s much more probable that the massive
forest clearances that followed the introduction of iron into
Timor destroyed most of their native habitats, and ultimately
drove these incredible creatures to extinction.Lessons from the Past
The fact that people caused the extinction of species on an
island is hardly news. Island extinctions by people is a classic
extinction scenario: humans arrive on an island that has never
before known their presence and, within a very short period
of time – sometimes only a few decades – the naivety of the
endemic species combined with people’s voracious appetites
wipes out all manner of delicious creatures. The dodo is perhaps
the most famous example of this scenario.
Humans undoubtedly had a hand in the extinction of
Timor’s giant rats, but what makes Timor really unusual is that
the mechanisms of extinction didn’t come into play until tens
of thousands of years after people arrived on the island. Other
island giant rats did not fare so well. The giant rats of Tenerife,
situated in the Canary Islands to the north-west of Africa,
became extinct almost immediately after humans irst arrived
on the islands, so what makes the Timor rats so special?
It turns out that Timor’s giant rats aren’t unique in surviving
so many thousands of years with people. Unbeknown to many,
rats as large as some of Timor’s giants can still be found living
on a few South-East Asian islands. New Guinea has by far the
most, with at least four species of giant rats known to science,
and probably several more species waiting to be described.
Known as woolly rats due to their fuzzy pelts, these species can
still be found living in the highlands of New Guinea today.
The nearby island of Flores still has one species of giant rat
(Fig. 6) in addition to several species of extinct giants. The
Philippines also hosts a couple of quite large rat species. Very
little is known about any of these creatures, including exactly
how many there are, what they eat, where they are found and
what sorts of habitats they prefer. Most importantly, we don’t
know how threatened they are, or what these threats might be.
Although now long gone, we can learn some important lessons
from the rats of Timor that might help preserve the giant rats
still with us. The fossil record of Timor shows that despite more
than 40,000 years of hunting and eating, people did not over-
hunt the giant rats to extinction. This suggests that sustainable
hunting by traditional peoples on New Guinea, Flores and the
Philippines are unlikely to threaten similar species.
However, massive deforestation on Timor 1000 years ago,
and occurring right now throughout South-East Asia, is likely
to reduce suitable habitats to a point where populations just
won’t be sustainable.
Rats evoke feelings of disgust and fright in many people, but
not all rats are created equal. Many species are shy forest-dwellers
under the risk of extinction. Preserving primary forests is crit-
ical to ensuring that these shy giants aren’t gone before we can
get to know them a little better.
Julien Louys is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian National University’s College
of Asia and the Pacific.26 | APRIL 2016
Figure 6. A modern giant rat from Flores. Credit: G. van den BerghFigure 5. The walls of ancient fortifications of Timor.Credit: S. O’Connor