There are fewer than 10 reported sightings of karrkaratul each decade.
This furry little lump is a karrkaratul.
Otherwise known as marsupial moles, karrkaratuls are found in the sandy deserts of central Australia. They're very rare to see – mostly because they spend all of their time below ground – and when they do pop up they're usually only around for a short while because of their complete and total blindness.
National Geographic reports there are only five to ten sightings of karrkaratuls each decade.
Last week, the Tjamu Tjamu Aboriginal corporation posted a video of one of the little guys above ground, something one of the men present had last seen "many years ago".
"We had been out recording stories of different bush foods: kampurapa (desert raisins), wangunu (woollybutt grass seed), kilkiti (a wattle seed) and more," wrote the page's administrator, Kate Crossing.
"We were driving along a bush track on our way home when this little golden creature ran across the road in front of us. Yalti yelled out 'karrkaratul' and jumped out as I stopped the car. We all crowded round as Yalti held this beautiful creature carefully in her hands, its powerful front feet trying to dig to safety."
"We do occasionally see their tracks at Kiwirrkurra", Kate told BuzzFeed News, "and we also see [their] remains in fox scats, so the foxes are obviously able to get to them and eat them."
The Tjamu Tjamau Aboriginal Corporation administers land on behalf of the Kiwirrkurra people of the Western Desert, and spends most of its resources on the threatened species of great desert skinks and bilbies, so it was a nice surprise for the group to see the karrkaratul in the flesh.
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