We humans have done a lot on Earth, although not every other species would agree we've
done all good things.
Lots of animals have gone extinct since we bootstrapped ourselves into the modern age,
but some of those "extinct" animals have actually been rediscovered years later.
To many, coelacanths are the poster children of species we thought were extinct.
This Darwinian darling once again graced us with its presence off the coast of South Africa
in 1938, a whopping 66 million years after it was thought to have retired.
The initial find made headlines worldwide, and with good reason.
The coelacanth is a biological time machine, giving scientists the chance to rewind to
a time before humans even existed.
Its morphology includes things that may have developed into humanoid features later on,
like its uniquely hinged skull, tube-like heart shape, and a nearly vacant, fat-filled
brain.
"This is a nice fish, ya know?
Big f---in’ eyes, but a nice f---in’ fish."
Despite a 400-million-year run, these bony fish are hanging on by a thread.
There are less than 10,000 of the two species still in existence, with numbers continually
dwindling.
Nobody's trying to eat these chaps, but they're getting caught up in fishing nets, and are
at risk from climate change.
This notoriously big bee goes by a number of different names.
Some know it as Wallace's giant bee.
Others call it raja ofu, meaning "king of the bees" in Indonesian.
However, the official taxonomic classification is Megachile pluto.
Whatever you choose to call it, you're unlikely to find a specimen in the wild.
Since its original discovery by Alfred Wallace in 1858, it's only been sighted a handful
of times, eluding scientists until being rediscovered in 1981.
Since then, the all-star species was feared extinct until two specimens popped up on Ebay
in 2018, one of which sold for over $9,000.
Its official rediscovery came in early 2019 after a five-day expedition discovered a single
female in a termite nest.
If you're ever in Indonesia or on Ebay and think you've spotted one, first check if it's
as big as your thumb.
Then look for its incredibly large mandibles, and listen for its buzzing, which should sound
like a low-powered electric razor.
If so, you may be looking at a female, which can grow up to 2.5 inches, while males only
grow to about an inch and lack mandibles.
The Arakan forest turtle was last seen in 1908 by a British military officer before
they started showing up in Asian food markets in 1994.
While this specific breed was not commercially hunted, locals had no qualms about chowing
down on them as "medical cures" for things like infertility, weakness, poverty, or lack
of happiness.
There are probably better ways to find happiness than eating turtles, but animal consumption
for wellness is a deeply ingrained tradition in some cultures.
That said, the threat of human consumption coupled with a mating cycle that produces
just one egg per year has put the Arakan forest turtle population at risk.
Luckily, recent years have seen conservation areas mandated, slightly increasing their
numbers in the wild.
Even better, organizations such as the Turtle Conservancy and Zoo Atlanta have had success
in hatching more, keeping the dream alive for these footlong shell-backed amphibians.
The Lord Howe stick insect, or Tree lobsters, as they're known colloquially, can be found
in the Lord Howe Island Group, about 370 miles off the eastern coast of Australia.
Once used as fishing bait, the population was thought to have been eradicated when the
SS Makambo ran aground in 1918, introducing voracious black rats that resulted in the
extinction of many of the island's animals.
The problem got worse when officials tried to address it by introducing Tasmanian masked
owls, a disastrous double-down on carnivorism.
However, things took a surprising turn in 2001, when 24 of these surprisingly fast 5-inch
bugs were rediscovered 100 feet up under a single shrub on Ball's Pyramid.
Scientists were able to find two breeding pairs, one of which was sent to a private
breeder, and the other to the Melbourne Zoo, which has since led to initial success in
repopulating the species.
If all goes well, plans to repopulate Lord Howe island will be put into place once rat
populations have been eradicated.
The New Guinea highland wild dog is one of the most rare and primitive canine species
in the world.
Ironically, the first dog of this species seen in over 50 years actually found us in
2016, following a researcher who was looking for evidence of the breed.
Considered an apex predator of New Guinea, this species is known to natives as "Anging
Penyani," or "dog that sings," and it is considered the foundational breed of what would become
the rare New Guinea singing dog.
These domestic canines howl with range matching Mariah Carey, trilling and hitting notes that
share sonic similarities with birds and humpback whales.
“That’s a bark.”
[DOG STARTS SINGING]
“There we go, that’s a little better!”
The highland wild dogs are also related to Shiba Inus, giving the species even more internet
fame.
The species is a variant of the gray wolf, diverging in evolution in the Late Pleistocene
era, and also shares DNA with Australian dingos.
Despite its proud lineage and confirmed sightings in the wild, virtually nothing else is known
about the species, which is considered something of a missing link in the genetic history of
canines.
Imagine being so seductive that people are willing to kill just for a chance to get a
piece of you.
That's the sad reality of the Kashmir musk deer, whose scent glands are thought to be
an aphrodisiac.
So hunters kill them for their fetid love stink.
As a result, the mule deer had once been thought to be extinct in some parts of the world,
vanishing from Afghanistan from 1949 until being rediscovered in 2009.
It's enough to make you want to hug them, but don't: besides being endangered, they
also have razor sharp fangs like a vampire.
So maybe just leave them alone!
To many birdwatchers, the Australian night parrot is considered the Holy Grail.
The bird is so seldom seen that some ornithologists have spent decades searching for it without
success.
This rare bird was first described in 1861 by John Gould.
From 1912 to 1979, nobody could find it all, and since then it's only been seen a handful
of times, including the most recent sighting in 2017 near Lake Disappointment.
"This isn't my world…
Disappointed!"
Speaking of disappointment, there's not much to write home about when it comes to the night
parrot.
It's nocturnal, and is essentially just a pudgy green and brown ball that prefers to
hop around on the ground rather than use its wings.
If you want to see it in flight, you've got to scare it, which will cause it to make its
decidedly odd startled croak before lifting off.
Otherwise it'll just putter around in tall grass scavenging for grass seeds and herbs.
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