Lord Howe Island Stick Insect hatching from Zoos Victoria on Vimeo.
I found a cool NPR story on a rediscovered stick insect, Dryococelus australis, off the coast of Australia! It was thought to be extinct after a British ship ran aground and the rats onboard made the island their new home and ate all the insects! Some intrepid sleuthing turned up a small population still surviving! Here is the original story:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years
I love news (and better yet stories!) of rediscovered organisms. It's got a different taste than a story of a newly discovered one, although that is always exciting too. Tales of rediscovery have a a romantic bent to them don't they? The tragic loss of something from this world...stretches of time go by and then one day the local murmurs of the creatures' sighting! A team is hastily put together and sent out! The journey is difficult, expensive, long, tedious, sometimes unfruitful. But sometimes they are not and you have a rediscovered walking stick insect! A rainbow frog back from the dead!
Lots more cool science news. Have not had time to update this blog and there are few field excursions in my life as of late but hang on! Spring and Summer are fast approaching!
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