Mount Mabu, Mozambique
War-torn and geographically treacherous, Mozambique provides numerous obstacles for explorers.
But thanks to Google Earth, a British scientist at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Julian Bayliss, stumbled upon the magnificent acres of rainforest in Mount Mabu – an area that had hitherto been uncharted. In 2008, a group of scientists embarked on an expedition and ended up finding over a hundred new species – plants, birds, butterflies, monkeys, snakes – in just three weeks.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty ImagesA type of pygmy chameleon, similar to the one above, was among the new species discovered in the forests of Mount Mabu.
Mount Mabu was well known to locals in Mozambique, but because of it’s accidental discovery by outsiders it is nicknamed the “Google Forest.”
In 2009, the government of Mozambique announced that it would take measures to protect the forest from logging because several species of birds found there are classified as globally threatened.
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