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The Madagascar Pochard, thought extinct since 1992, has been rediscovered.

http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/ ... edisc.html

Diving duck resurfaces
20-11-2006

The Madagascar Pochard, a diving duck last sighted in 1991 and feared ‘Possibly Extinct’, has been rediscovered during a survey in remote northern Madagascar.

Conservationists from The Peregrine Fund Madagascar Project, discovered nine adults and four recently-hatched young on a remote lake, and have since revisited the site for further observations and data.

“This is an exciting discovery that strengthens our conviction that putting well-trained biologists into the field to learn about species is critical for conservation success,” said Rick Watson, International Programs Director for The Peregrine Fund.

“With better knowledge about the habitat requirements of the Madagascar Pochard comes greater hopes for protecting the species and this area of marshland – a habitat on which many other threatened species may depend.” —Vony Raminoarisoa, Director of BirdLife International Madagascar Programme

The Madagascar Pochard Aythya innotata was until recently listed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). The last pochard sighting was on Lake Alaotra in the Central Plateau of Madagascar in 1991 when a male was captured and kept in Antananarivo Zoological and Botanical Gardens until its death one year later. The lack of subsequent records despite intensive searches, and the intensity of threats to the species, had led to it being tagged as Possibly Extinct.


The last record of multiple birds dates back to June 1960 when 20 birds were sighted on Lake Alaotra.


“After so much searching, and so long without a sighting, hope seemed to be fading for this species." said Vony Raminoarisoa, Director of BirdLife International Madagascar Programme. "With better knowledge about the habitat requirements of the Madagascar Pochard comes greater hopes for protecting the species and this area of marshland – a habitat on which many other threatened species may depend.”

The decline of the Madagascar Pochard is thought to have started in the mid-20th century and has been linked with degrading lake and marshland habitat from introduced plant and fish species, conversion to rice paddies, and burning. Little is known about the pochard, an extremely secretive and often solitary bird that prefers shallow and marshy habitat.

"The finding encourages us to consider more seriously the possibly that Madagascar's other 'Possibly Extinct' waterbird, the Alaotra Grebe, may not have been restricted to Lake Alaotra (where it no longer occurs); perhaps it occurred elsewhere, and perhaps it still does" said Roger Safford, Programme & Projects Manager, BirdLife International.
 
Endangered Turtle Found in Vietnam

(AP) -- Researchers in Vietnam announced Friday they have caught one of the world's most endangered turtles in the wild, a development which could bolster efforts to protect the species from hunters and collectors.

The Vietnamese Pond turtle, found only in lowland areas of Vietnam - was caught in late November in Quang Nam province, according to the Asia Turtle Program.

While the turtles are still found in markets and pet shops, it was the first time researchers have caught one in the wild in 65 years.

The World Conservation Union has classified the turtle known as Mauremys annamensis as "endangered" and conservationists say it is also on a list of the world's top 25 endangered turtle species.

http://www.physorg.com/printnews.php?newsid=84779272
 
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A Brazillian woodpecker has been rediscovered after 80 years

One of Brazil’s most enigmatic birds has reappeared after an absence of 80 years. The news of the rediscovery of Caatinga Woodpecker Celeus obrieni has delighted conservationists in the region and gives hope for other ‘lost’ birds feared extinct in South America.

Caatinga Woodpecker was found by a Brazilian ornithologist Advaldo do Prado whilst surveying in the Tocantins region of Central Brazil. This enigmatic species had not been observed since its initial discovery in 1926.

“Rediscovering birds is what many conservationists dream about,” said Pedro Develey IBA Coordinator of SAVE Brasil (BirdLife in Brazil), “There is something truly special about finding a bird that many of us considered ‘lost’ for so long.”

The woodpecker was previously known only from a single specimen collected in Brazil and deposited in the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The specimen was traditionally considered a subspecies of Rufous-headed Woodpecker C. spectabilis also from South America. It wasn’t until a recent review by ornithologists involved with the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithologists' Union concluded that dramatic differences in the plumage of Caatinga Woodpecker warranted full species status.

The new discovery was found approximately 200 miles east of the area where the previous specimen was taken in 1926, suggesting to conservationists that other individuals may lie in similar habitats in the eastern part of Central Brazil. BirdLife International, the official Red List Authority for birds for the IUCN Red List, are to formally propose that Caatinga Woodpecker be listed as Critically Endangered.

“Rediscoveries like this allow us crucial opportunities for understanding behaviour, ecology and for gauging conservation status with a view to creating protected areas within the Tocantins, a region that has suffered in recent years with expansion of agriculture and new road projects.” said Pedro Develey.

The new finding comes in the wake of a number of recent bird rediscoveries in Brazil including Golden-crowned Manakin, Rufous-fronted Antthrush, White-winged Potoo, Kaempfer’s Tody-tyrant and most recently, Cone-billed Tanager.

“Caatinga Woodpecker and rediscoveries like it provide hope for other South American birds currently missing and feared extinct, some of which haven’t been seen for over 150 years.” said Stuart Butchart, Global Species Coordinator, BirdLife International and co-author of ‘Lost and Found: a gap analysis for the Neotropical avifauna’, a recent article on the rediscovery of ‘lost’ birds.

Data from BirdLife International’s Global Species Programme states that Brazil has more globally threatened birds than any other country on earth. Of the 111 species at risk of extinction in Brazil, 98 live in the Atlantic forest, which has been reduced by more than 90% of its original extent.

For more information on other ‘lost’ bird species in South America download a copy of ‘Lost and Found: a gap analysis for the Neotropical avifauna’ (PDF), extracted from ‘Neotropical Birding 2006’

http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2006/ ... edisc.html
 
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/ ... snake.html

Blind Snake Rediscovered After 100-Year Absence

By Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer

A rare blind snake has been rediscovered in Madagascar a century after its last sighting. The snake, which looks like a long, skinny pink worm, was only known from two other specimens, both discovered in 1905.

“They’re really rare because they’re subterranean,” said blind-snake expert Van Wallach of Harvard University who described the new specimen. “You can’t just go out anytime you want and collect these things. You can dig forever and never find them.”

Scientists captured the snake [image], called Xenotyphlops mocquardi, alive in 2005 during an expedition to collect reptiles and amphibians in northern Madagascar. The specimen was approximately 10 inches long and about as thick as a pencil.

There are about 15 species of blind snakes on the island, so the unique nature of the team’s find wasn’t apparent until the blind snake specimen was sent to museum experts for identification and possible comparison with dead specimens in their collections.

“They sent it to me and I immediately recognized what it was,” Wallach told LiveScience.

Vincenzo Mercurio, a scientist on the expedition that discovered the snake, said he didn’t think anything special about the catch at the time. “It was just routine field work,” said Mercurio, who is from the Forschungsinstitut und Naturhistorisches Museum Senckenberg in Germany.

Blind snakes, as their name suggests, have poor vision.They hunt mainly by smell, which they detect via a combination of their tongues and an organ located on the roof of their mouths called Jacobson’s organ.

“They basically see shadows and back and forth movements,” Wallach said.

Blind snakes, and a related group, called worm snakes, live underground or beneath a layer of rocks or sand. The two snake families are negatively phototaxic, meaning they avoid light whenever possible.

“If you catch one or bring it to the surface, it immediately wants to crawl under something or crawl down into the ground,” Wallach said.

Blind and worm snakes are the only snakes that dine solely on insects. They feed on the eggs, larvae and pupae of ants and termites, Wallach said.

Scientists believe the two groups separated from a common ancestor sometime during the Cretaceous period, when their larger reptilian cousins, the dinosaurs, still walked the Earth.

Blind snakes can sometimes appear to be sighted. “Most blind snakes and worm snakes do have eyes, but they’re vestigial," Wallach said. "Sometimes they’re only little black spots, sometimes they‘re well developed enough to have a pupil and an iris, but they’re very, very tiny.”

The rediscovered blind snake is detailed in the Feb. issue of the journal Zootaxa.
 
This is really cool:

1st Beaver Spotted in NYC in 200 Years

NEW YORK Feb 23, 2007 (AP)— Beavers grace New York City's official seal. But the industrious rodents have not been seen in the flesh here for as many as 200 years until this week.

Biologists videotaped a beaver swimming up the Bronx River on Wednesday. Its twig-and-mud lodge had been spotted earlier on the river bank, but the tape confirmed the presence of the animal itself [...]

ABC news

(the NYC official seal can be seen here)
 
However, this little bug seems for real:
Beetle re-emerges after 60 years

A beetle thought to be extinct in the UK since the 1940s has been rediscovered in south Devon.
The short-necked oil beetle was found by an amateur entemologist during a wildlife survey on National Trust (NT) land between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail.

The beetles were last recorded at Chailey Common, Sussex in 1948.

Up to 40 of the insects, which survive by hitching rides on miner bees as larvae and then eating the bees' eggs, were found at the Devon site.

The beetle, which gets its name from the highly toxic oil secretions it produces when threatened, is also known as Meloe brevicollis.

The adult beetles, which live for about three months, lay up to 1,000 eggs in a burrow in soft or sandy soil and eggs hatch in the following spring.

Once they have hatched the young larvae crawl up on to vegetation, often lying in wait in flowers, where they hitch a ride on mining bees and are involuntarily taken back to the bee's nest.

SHORT-NECKED OIL BEETLE
Adult beetles are flightless, large and slow moving
The bodies (especially of females) are swollen
The wing cases are short and rudimentary
The young larvae are known as triungulins after their three claws
They then devour the bee's egg and also the protein rich pollen stores the bee intended to provide for its own larvae.

But the flightless creature's natural habitats and the populations of bees they rely on have been decimated by intensive farming practices.

The NT said the coastal strip of land where the oil beetle was discovered by Bob Beckford had been managed less intensively as farmland, creating a habitat where the beetle could survive undisturbed.

This site will now be monitored and the lifecycle of the beetle examined in more detail so the land is managed in a way that helps the insect flourish.

David Bullock, head of nature conservation at the NT, said: "The discovery of a beetle that was thought to be extinct for nearly 60 years is an amazing story of survival, particularly for a species with such an interdependent lifecycle.

"It's great that this oil beetle, with its fascinating lifestyle, has survived against all the odds and is back in business on the south Devon coast."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6464531.stm
 
Pig-footed Bandicoot Rises From the Dead
By David Grimm
ScienceNOW Daily News
1 April 2007

A kitten-sized Australian marsupial thought to have gone extinct over a century ago appears to be alive and well. The pig-footed bandicoot was last spotted in 1901, but today researchers provided fresh evidence of its existence. "It's a miracle," says Jared Watson, a conservation biologist at the University of Brunswick in Melbourne. "I thought we'd seen the last of this 8-teated, posteriorly pouched creature."
Known for its rabbity ears, thin legs, and hooflike nails, the pig-footed bandicoot (Chaeropus ecaudatus) was once widespread throughout inland Australia. Its name literally means "tailless pig-foot", a misnomer applied to a specimen that--unbeknownst to first describer--had lost its long, orange-brown tail in a taxidermic mishap. European encroachment in the latter half of the 19th century permanently altered the bandicoot's habitat, setting the creature on the path to extinction. Famed Australian naturalist Gerard Krefft is thought to have recovered two of the last specimens, but tired of subsisting on meager field rations, he ate them both. "I am sorry to say that my appetite overruled my love for science," Krefft wrote in his journal.

Now, a medley of multimedia may make up for Krefft's hasty stomach. In today's issue of Nature Zoology: Australia and Surrounding Islands, a team led by biologist Peter Shadbolt of the University of Queenstown in New Zealand documents three dramatic pieces of evidence for the pig-footed bandicoot's continued existence. The first is a photo taken by an American tourist on a walkabout. Although her thumb obscures most of the shot, a toe with a tiny, hooflike nail can clearly be seen in the lower right-hand corner. Then there's the audio evidence: At the end of a track entitled "Get Off My (Out)Back" from Australian rock band AC/DC's most recent album, Rockin' the Wilderness, there is the faint sound of two squeals quickly followed by a high-pitched yowl. "The band recorded the album outdoors," Shadbolt explains. "They must have caught a pig-footed bandicoot mating call during one of their sessions."

But the most convincing evidence, says Shadbolt, is a grainy video that showed up on YouTube in December. The clip, apparently intended to document the humiliation one man suffers after being hit in the groin by his own boomerang, catches a rabbit-sized creature fleeing with the pig-footed bandicoot's characteristic awkward gallop. "I snerked my Guinness when I saw the boomerang thwack the guy," Shadbolt says. "I almost missed the bandicoot footage."

In total, the evidence is so persuasive, says conservationist Terry Shaw of Canada's National Wildlife Alliance, that Australian game officials should set up a perimeter around the center of the continent and begin searching for more bandicoots. Korean stem cell researcher Woo Suk Hwang has offered to clone the animal should any of its DNA be found.

But not everyone is convinced. "I'd say the creature in that video is more young-cat-sized than kitten-sized," says marsupial expert Langston Buckwalter of St. Elizabeth College in Oxford, U.K. "And its gait is clumsy rather than awkward." But most troubling, says Buckwalter, is the fact that Shadbolt's team published a nearly identical study on this date last year. "Something about the first of April tends to bring the dodos out of the woodwork," he says.


http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/co ... 2007/401/1
 
Two caveats: I've not so much as googled any of the names in the above article and it is 7:30am here and I'm still on my first cup of coffee...but, umm, that piece (also appears on today's breaking news page) is an April Fools put-on...isn't it?
 
lopaka3 said:
Two caveats: I've not so much as googled any of the names in the above article and it is 7:30am here and I'm still on my first cup of coffee...but, umm, that piece (also appears on today's breaking news page) is an April Fools put-on...isn't it?

Yeah, I also noted it on the April Foll thread yesterday.
 
Striped rabbit spotted in Sumatra
One of the rarest species of rabbit in the world has been spotted for only the third time in the last 35 years.
The Sumatran striped rabbit was photographed in late January on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the Wildlife Conservation Society said.

The species is listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union, due to loss of habitat.

The rabbit was previously photographed in 2000, with the last sighting by a scientist back in 1972.

Habitat risk

The 30cm-long rabbit was photographed by a camera trap in Bukit Barisan National Park, said Colin Poole, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Asia Program.

The sighting also highlighted the need to protect the habitat of the species, also known as nesolagus netscheri, from threats such as farming, he said.

"This rabbit is so poorly known that any proof of its continued existence at all is great news, and confirms the conservation importance of Sumatra's forests," Mr Poole said.

Back in 1999, researchers discovered another species of striped rabbit in the Annamite Mountains between Laos and Vietnam, and named it the Annamite striped rabbit.

Genetic samples revealed the species were distinct, though closely related, most likely diverging about 8 million years ago.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 530365.stm

Published: 2007/04/05 15:54:58 GMT

© BBC MMVII
 
Dino-aged Reptile Makes a Comeback
www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-11/ ... s-comeback
The world's oldest lizard-like reptile, with roots dating back to the Triassic period, has been found breeding again for the first time in 200 years
By Jaya Jiwatram

Tuatara: Before the close of this century, the tuatara may lose the first half of its topical designation and become, simply, a fossil. Climate change will be responsible for raising the soil temperature in its remaining island habitats around New Zealand to the point at which female hatchlings cannot survive. After the introduction of rats to the mainland by early explorers, the tuatara's population was set on a course toward extinction. Now its only remaining members there are in a fenced wildlife sanctuary. This cousin of both lizards and snakes is the only remaining member of an order of reptiles stretching back 200 million years. It is perhaps most curiously known for the third eye set on top of its skull, the exact function of which is largely speculative. While it is connected to the brain by a dedicated nerve, the parietal eye is covered with scales and is hidden from view soon after birth, leading some to believe it is responsible for maintaining circadian rhythms. lizardb0y (CC Licensed)

He is greenish brown, has dragon scales for skin, grows up to 32 inches and is the world's last remaining lizard-like reptile that has a lineage dating back to about 225 million years when dinosaurs still roamed the earth—he's a tuatara and he's making a comeback. A species native to New Zealand, the tuatara was spotted nesting in a sanctuary close to Wellington last week, the first such sighting in 200 years. Staff at the 620-acre Karori Wildlife Sanctuary stumbled upon four white, leathery ping-pong sized tuatara eggs during routine maintenance work at the end of last week.



Tuatara Eggs: Karori SanctuaryA rare find, the nest is the first concrete proof that tuatara are breeding again, said sanctuary officials of the species that, unlike other reptiles, has two rows of top teeth and a light-sensitive "third eye" on its forehead, which is visible for about six months when it hatches. In an effort to save the species that once flourished in the Mesozoic Era and almost neared extinction in the 1700s because of the introduction of predators like rats, the Karori Sanctuary created 70 tuatara in 2005 and another 130 in 2007, before releasing them into the wild. At the moment, tuatara can only be found living in the wild in 32 offshore islands that have been removed of possible predators.

Sanctuary officials said the eggs were most likely laid a year ago and that there could be more since an average nest usually contains around 10 eggs. If incubated properly, the eggs, which have been left at its original location to avoid any further disturbance, should hatch some time between now and March.
 
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n23_19022009.htm

Rare quail spotted

A QUAIL feared extinct has been spotted alive for the first time in decades – on its way to a cooking pot.

Worcester‘s buttonquail was previously known only through drawings based on dead museum specimens. The live bird was snared by hunters in the Caraballo mountains of the Philippines and a film crew took pictures and video footage.

Michael Lu, president of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, said the group was “ecstatic” about the find, but “sad that the locals do not value the biodiversity around them”.
 
....with picture here:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... photo.html

"A TV crew documented the live bird in the market before it was sold in January, according to the Agence France-Press news agency.

Michael Lu, president of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, told AFP the bird's demise should inspire a "local consciousness" about the region's threatened wildlife.

"What if this was the last of its species?" Lu said.

However, the buttonquail is from a "notoriously cryptic and unobtrusive family of birds," according to the nonprofit Birdlife International, so the species may survive undetected in other regions."
 
Old news, but I'd never heard of this thing before. I though that the platypus was the only known living venomous mammal. Reading around a bit though, I've found that in the UK we have two species of our own, the Water shrew and the Mole. Moles are venomous apparently. :shock:

I thought this thread would come out in cryptozoology, instead of news stories.
 
I though that the platypus was the only known living venomous mammal. Reading around a bit though, I've found that in the UK we have two species of our own, the Water shrew and the Mole
.

Don't forget George Galloway.
 
Rare brown long-eared bats found on Isles of Scilly

A Devon biologist has discovered a species of bat breeding on the Isles of Scilly not seen on the islands for about 40 years, a university says.
The brown long-eared bats were found on the islands off Cornwall by Dr Fiona Mathews, from the University of Exeter.
A postgraduate student and a team from the Wiltshire Bat Group were also involved in the discovery.
Dr Mathews said the team was excited because a pregnant female which was found might mean a breeding colony.

The Isles of Scilly Bat Group called in Dr Mathews and her team to help them find out more about bats on the islands, the university said.
The team was working on solving a mystery surrounding the annual disappearance of the large common pipistrelle bat colony on St Mary's. It found that they had moved to a new site.

However, it also discovered the brown-long eared bats roosting in a pine tree.
Dr Mathews said: "We found this individual roosting in an old split Monterey pine tree planted by the shore as a wind-break, and feeding along avenues of elm trees.
"Now we know the bats are there, local conservation organisations can start to improve the habitat for them."

Brown long-eareds, which have ears that are three-quarters the length of their head and body, were last seen on the Isles of Scilly in the 1960s.
They only come out to fly when it is too dark to see them, and feed mainly on moths and caterpillars.
The bats are very reliant on woodland for shelter, which is in short supply on the islands.

Dr Mathews said: "The last known colony on the Isles of Scilly disappeared when their roosting site in a building was lost and now we have a chance to reverse their fortunes."

The islands' bat group said studying the brown long-eareds would be one of its priorities over the next few years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13828921
 
oldrover said:
Old news, but I'd never heard of this thing before. I though that the platypus was the only known living venomous mammal. [snip]
I thought this thread would come out in cryptozoology, instead of news stories.
An article showed up on the Net last year, about a (successful) quest for the similar and related creature, the Hispaniolan Solenodon, found on the neighbouring island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The H.S. is desperately rare, and threatened by habitat destruction, but seems just to be hanging on.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/10146397
 
'Extinct' ladybird found breeding in Devon
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-14761809

The ladybird larva was found during a survey of the wetlands in the Axe Estuary

Related Stories

Wasp turns ladybird into 'zombie'
Study shows ladybirds declining

A species of ladybird that was considered extinct in the UK in 1952 has been found breeding in east Devon.

In the past 60 years the 13-spot ladybird - Hippodamia tredecimpunctata - has "occasionally" been sighted in the UK, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said.

Now a single ladybird larva has been discovered by a University of Exeter student in wetlands in the Axe Estuary.

The organisation said it was the first breeding record since 1952.

'Significant discovery'
PhD student Richard Comont found the larva while he surveyed the area for wildlife.

He said: "As soon as I saw the larva I was fairly sure it was a 13-spot - it's something I've dreamt of finding.

"It's such a significant discovery that I took it back to rear it to adulthood, to make absolutely sure.

"When it finally hatched into an adult I could confirm it as the first native 13-spot for 60 years."

Andrew Whitehouse, from Buglife, a charity dedicated to maintaining sustainable populations of insects, said: "Many of Britain's invertebrate populations are declining at a drastic rate.

"It is great to have some good news."
 
Researchers rediscover toad thought to be extinct
June 20th, 2012 in Biology / Plants & Animals

Image (c) Zootaxa.

(Phys.org) -- Researchers working for the Herpetological Foundation of Sri Lanka have obtained a specimen of the Kandyan dwarf toad (Adenomus kandianus) near a stream in a sanctuary in the island nation of Sri Lanka. Prior to its find the toad had been thought to be extinct as no reports of its existence had been published since its initial description in 1872 with further details added in 1876. The researchers describe their find in a paper published in the journal Zootaxa.

The team came upon the toad by accident, believing it to be a torrent when it was captured on a night expedition. The two species closely resemble one another and the team believes it’s likely that the group of toads from which the Kandyan was taken were likely a mix of both. The Kandyan can be distinguished from the torrent by its froglike webbed feet and dark warts on its back.

Prior to the discovery the Kandyan had been listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as extinct, primarily because it had not been seen in over a hundred years. The research team believes its status will be changed to “Critically Endangered” once updated on the list due to the threats to its environment by logging. The found specimen was definitively identified by comparing it with two specimens held in British museums since the 1800’s.

The team was in the area to perform a survey on indigenous amphibians because they say not much is known about the diversity of the populations there. The region is remote, the weather generally bad and the terrain difficult to cross, and as a result few researchers have ventured into the area to find out what sorts of animal life exists there. The Kandyan sample was in fact found back in 2009, but its existence has only come to light now due to the team publishing their paper.

Sri Lanka has the highest proportion of amphibians listed as extinct by any nation with some sixty percent of those recorded at one time or another as gone forever. The research team who found the Kandyan dwarf toad suggest that more surveys in the remotest parts of the island would likely prove some of those other listings to be incorrect as well.

More information: L. J. MENDIS WICKRAMASINGHE, DULAN RANGA VIDANAPATHIRANA & NETHU WICKRAMASINGHE (Sri Lanka): Back from the dead: The world’s rarest toad Adenomus kandianus rediscovered in Sri Lanka, Zootaxa, 3347: 63–68. http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/list/2012/3347.html (can be accessed here)
Abstract

Adenomus kandianus Günther (1872) was previously known only from two specimens both deposited in the British Museum, the holotype BMNH1947.2.20.63, and the syntype of A. kelaarti BMNH1947.2.20.62. The only record of A. kandianus since the initial description in 1872 was by Ferguson in 1876, who mentions two specimens resembling Bufo kandianus in his collection, making A. kandianus the world’s rarest toad. The species had not been reported since, and was considered extinct. Here we report on its rediscovery.

© 2012 Phys.Org

"Researchers rediscover toad thought to be extinct." June 20th, 2012. http://phys.org/news/2012-06-rediscover ... tinct.html
 
Crypto no more:

World's rarest whale seen for first time
The world’s rarest whale has been seen for the first time after a mother and calf were washed up on a beach in New Zealand.
By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent
5:00PM GMT 05 Nov 2012

Spade-toothed beaked whales were first discovered in 1872 when bone fragments were found on a remote Pacific island, but until now the species has remained entirely hidden from human view.
In the 140 years since they were first discovered, the only sign that the creatures' continued existence lay in two partial skulls found in New Zealand in the 1950s and Chile in 1986.

Now scientists have reported a complete description of the whales, which are thought to spend most of their lives in the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean, only rarely coming to the surface.

The Mother and her male calf were stranded on Opape Beach at the northern tip of New Zealand in December 2010 but were initially thought to be of a much more common species known as Gray's beaked whales.
It was only after routine DNA analysis that experts realised their true identity.

Dr Rochelle Constantine of the University of Auckland said: "This is the first time this species — a whale over five meters in length — has ever been seen as a complete specimen, and we were lucky enough to find two of them.
"Up until now, all we have known about the spade-toothed beaked whale was from three partial skulls collected from New Zealand and Chile over a 140-year period. It is remarkable that we know almost nothing about such a large mammal."

Because the animals had never been seen very little is known about their behaviour, but writing in the Current Biology journal, the researchers suggested they were likely to be "exceptionally deep divers, foraging for squid and small fish and spending little time at the surface."

Dr Constantine said it was unclear why the species has been so elusive, but added: "It may be that they are simply an offshore species that lives and dies in the deep ocean waters and only rarely wash ashore. New Zealand is surrounded by massive oceans. There is a lot of marine life that remains unknown to us."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... -time.html
 
Lost snake species rediscovered in Mexico

The Clarion Nightsnake has a distinctive pattern of spots Photo: Daniel Mulcahy

A lost species of snake that eluded scientists for nearly 80 years has been rediscovered in Mexico, a US museum says.

The Clarion Nightsnake was found on the Pacific island of Clarion in Mexico by a researcher from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

The snake was first discovered in 1936 by naturalist William Beebe.

Although never declared extinct, it was struck from the record after scientists were unable to rediscover it.

The museum said that researcher Daniel Mulcahy, working with an expert from a Mexican institute, carried out an expedition to Clarion Island where their team identified 11 snakes matching Beebe's description.

DNA tests confirmed that the Clarion Nightsnake was indeed genetically distinct from others found in mainland Mexico.

The museum said the snake species is found exclusively on the island and could have remained unknown to science if not for the team's efforts. It is now recognised as a full species.

"The rediscovery of the Clarion Nightsnake is an incredible story of how scientists rely on historical data and museum collections to solve modern-day mysteries about biodiversity in the world we live in," Mr Mulcahy said in a museum statement.

"Proper identification is the first step toward conserving this snake, and we plan to continue monitoring this species to learn more about the role it plays in the delicate Clarion Island ecosystem."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27481016
 
From here

More than a century after it was “lost”, the New Guinea big-eared bat has been discovered by Queensland researchers working in Papua New Guinea’s forests. The critically endangered bat was thought to be extinct, and the discovery shows there is still much to learn about biodiversity in our region.

On July 25, 2012, Catherine Hughes and Julie Broken-Brow caught a small, female bat in a trap at the edge of a forest in southeast Papua New Guinea (PNG). But the bat didn’t match any species known to exist. And so began a fascinating detective story about a species that hadn’t been spotted for more than 120 years.

As part of a fauna survey, Catherine and Julie ventured into the lowland forests 200 km southeast of Port Moresby, in a region known as the Cloudy Bay Forest Management Area. The survey was part of a University of Queensland study, carried out with the permission of local landowners and sponsored by Cloudy Bay Sustainable Forestry Ltd, which manages the area.

One aim of the project was to determine how small, insectivorous bats — known as “microbats” — respond to sustainably harvested forests over time. Not enough is known about the biology of microbats throughout the world, and particularly in PNG.

One of the most common methods for surveying them is by acoustic detection, which involves recording their ultrasonic echolocation calls. Every microbat species has a unique call, which can be used to identify the species – as long as you know what its call is like.

We were attempting to collate a reference library of the echolocation calls for microbat species in this area of PNG. We did this by trapping as many different microbats as possible, identifying them and then recording their calls when we released them.

When Catherine and Julie captured their bat, on the edge of logged forest near an old coconut plantation now covered with grassland, they thought it was either the small-toothed nyctophilus (Nyctophilus microdon) or a Pharotis – the genus to which the New Guinea big-eared bat belongs.

The trap that caught the bat was only at the site for two nights, making this discovery particularly lucky.

The bat was ethically euthanized and taken to the PNG National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby. Specimens like this are an important reference for future research, and also a good way to identify species whose identity cannot be confirmed in the field.

In March 2014 the bat was loaned to the Australian Museum in Sydney, where researcher Harry Parnaby identified it as Pharotis imogene – the New Guinea big-eared bat.

It is the first record of the species since 1890 – meaning that this bat was missing in action for the entire 20th century.

Measurements of the new specimen are consistent with those of the first specimens collected in 1890 from a coastal village called Kamali, 120 km west of our study site.

The New Guinea big-eared bat, like the rest of the genera Pharotis and Nyctophilus, is distinguished by a combination of two features: large ears and a simple “nose-leaf” structure immediately behind the nostrils. Collectively, the group of species is known as long-eared (or big-eared) bats. P. imogene has larger ears than most.

It is very rare to recapture a species after more than 120 years. This discovery also extends the known range of the species in PNG’s Central Province by around 120 km to the east.

Its current status on the IUCN Red List is Critically Endangered (possibly extinct) – the good news is that this discovery confirms that it’s not extinct. It is also listed in the top 100 of the world’s most unique and endangered mammals.

While this rediscovery may not change the critically endangered status of the species, confirming the species current existence is still valuable for its conservation. This means that a recent capture location can be used to target the species for ecological studies.

Nothing is known of the ecology of New Guinea big-eared bat, and therefore more surveys are needed in the coastal lowland rainforests of southern PNG. Many lowland rainforest habitats are being disturbed by timber logging (both sustainable and otherwise), clearing for development, and agriculture. The effect of these disturbances on the bat is unknown; however if the species is found in low numbers, it may be threatened by local disturbances.

PNG is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. The country accounts for about 7% of the world’s species diversity, with about 276 known mammal species, 314 freshwater fish, 641 amphibian and reptile species, 740 birds, and many more. According to the World Wildlife Fund, between 1998 and 2008, 1060 new species were discovered, including a blue-eyed spotted cuscus, a 2.5 metre freshwater shark, and a giant bent-toed gecko.

In 2013, a rapid biodiversity survey conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society in a remote location of PNG (Hindenburg Wall) discovered at least 89 new plant and animal species. These surveys show that PNG’s biodiversity numbers will continue to grow as we survey more of the country.

Yet at the same time, major losses to PNG’s biodiversity are being caused by rapid human population growth, forest degradation by illegal logging and trading, the establishment of plantations (palm oil, coconut, coffee), mining and forestry, and climate change. While our team are delighted with rediscovering this bat from extinction, we are still saddened by the plight of other animals such as the Bramble Cay melomys in nearby Torres Strait.

Who knows what other species are out there? If we’re not careful, they might be gone before we can find them.

stu edit - phpbb code sorted
 
I do hope that wasn't one of the last two...
 
I was just thinking that as well. Why can't rare species be kept alive at least? If they died later on they would still have the specimen.
 
Tree lobsters and walking sticks.

They call it "Ball's Pyramid." It's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago. A British naval officer named Ball was the first European to see it in 1788. It sits off Australia, in the South Pacific. It is extremely narrow, 1,844 feet high, and it sits alone.

What's more, for years this place had a secret. At 225 feet above sea level, hanging on the rock surface, there is a small, spindly little bush, and under that bush, a few years ago, two climbers, working in the dark, found something totally improbable hiding in the soil below. How it got there, we still don't know.
 
A fascinating tale!

I first heard of Lord Howe Island in Francis Chichester's book, "Alone across the Tasman Sea", describing the first flight from New Zealand to Australia in 1931.

A short biography of Chichester:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/discovering/famous/francis_chichester.shtml
(He was born in Barnstaple, like my daughter!)

Looking at other links, I was surprised to find that he also encountered a UFO on this flight!
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1038577/pg1

All very Fortean!
 
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