Rationale
(Changed due to Same category and criteria)
Agriculture has dramatically transformed habitat at the type locality, but impact thereof cannot be assessed given uncertainty about the provenance of the type specimen and/or the habitat requirements of the species. No specimens have been seen or collected since its description, despite two expeditions to the type locality during which not even local farmers ever recalled having seen a golden mole in the district. Further research may show this species to qualify for Critically Endangered if indeed a population still survives at the type location.
Distribution
This species is known from a single specimen collected from the type locality at Gouna, Northern Cape, South Africa. Several field trips to ground-truth the occurrence of this species have yielded no specimens, or even signs of golden moles, suggesting either an error in recording provenance, or that the original specimen was transported there by anthropogenic means (Bronner 2013) or even perhaps by floodwaters of the Renoster River, flowing from the Roggeveld mountains further south where several other species of golden moles occur. The possibility exists that the holotype originated from Gouna Forest near Knysna (Eastern Cape), but was incorrectly assumed (by Broom, 1950) to be from Gouna in Northern Cape; surveying at Gouna Forest is needed to assess this possibility.
Conservation
Research is needed to ground-truth the existence of this species in the Gouna areas of both Northern and Eastern Cape, and/or to trace the locality from which the type specimen was collected. Study of more specimens is required to clarify the systematic status of this taxon.
