Meet James Bond, a new rodent from West Indies

LONDON: Researchers have discovered a cat-sized rodent in a Caribbean island and named him after James Bond, a real-life naturalist who also gave his name to Ian Fleming's fictional British spy.

The rodent, which weighs more than a kilogramme, was discovered in Hispaniola island by Samuel Turvey of the Zoological Society of London and colleagues.

The rodent is a type of hutia, a family of secretive rodents that live in the Carribean islands, 'New Scientist' reported.

The rodent has been named Plagiodontia aedium bondi after Philadelphia ornithologist James Bond who studied the distribution of hutias and their relatives in the Caribbean.

Writer - and avid birder - Fleming was a fan of Bond's Birds of the West Indies and named the fictional character in his novels James Bond, otherwise known as 007, after him.

The newly discovered resident may be one of only eight types of hutia left.

Although there were once more than 30 species, most hutia have been driven to extinction by the colonisation of the islands.