Scientists use Google Earth to discover new forest and species

Scientists have found an undiscovered pocket of forest filled with new species in Mozambique. They used Google Earth to discover the forest.

Julian Bayliss, a British scientist for Kew, an organizations based in Mozambique, was exploring Google Earth. He was looking for places 5,400 ft (1,600 meters) above sea level because they were more likely to get more rainfall, which meant they were more likely to have forests. During his search, he actually found Mount Mabu in the region. Mount Mabu has been overlooked for so many years because it is a difficult terrain for exploration and the prolonged civil war in the country made it impossible to be discovered sooner. After the discovery of Mount Mabu using Google Earth, an expedition of 28 scientists from the UK, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Switzerland were organized. Jonathan Timberlake from England led the expedition, where they found about 7,000 hectares of forest filled with rich biodiversity. Google Earth helped Bayliss focus on specific areas using satellite imagery, and scientists found hundreds of different plant species, birds, butterflies, monkeys and a new species of giant snake. Some of the discoveries were: three new species of Lepidoptera butterfly, blue duiker antelope, samango monkeys, elephant shrews, about 200 different types of butterflies, a new member of Gaboon viper family of snakes and thousands of tropical plants. The team has collected samples and taken them back to Britain for analysis. The team is not done yet, either. They plan to use Google Earth again to find other unexplored territories in Mozambique and Papua New Guinea. Previously a scientist in Australia discovered a crater using Google Earth.