Amazing animals found after decades of ‘extinction’ – from the world’s biggest bee to a chameleon hiding in a hotel
THE natural world is currently going through its sixth mass extinction event, with human activity pushing thousands of species of animals to the brink of total annihilation every year.
But amid the catastrophe, moments of hope come in the form of species once thought to have been lost forever being rediscovered decades later.
The most recent resurrection is the "lost" Voeltzkow’s chameleon which no one had seen for over 100 years.
Researchers found the colour-changing critters in the garden of the Chez Madame Chabaud hotel in the Madagascan town of Mahajanga.
The three males and 15 females are the first to be discovered by humans since 1913.
Voeltzkow’s chameleon is featured on the Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) list of the 25 "most wanted" lost species.
“The Voeltzkow’s chameleon adds colour and beauty to the planet, and reminds us that even when all seems lost, a great adventure can rekindle hope even for species we haven’t seen since Woodrow Wilson was president,” said Don Church, GWC president and a Search for Lost Species programme lead.
“Now we have so much to learn about this extraordinary reptile, including how we can best save it from extinction.”
But the rediscovered reptile is just one of many astonishing lost animals to be found in recent years – from tree-dwelling kangeroos to ancient tortoises.
Massive missing spider
News of the Voeltzkow’s chameleon rediscovery in a hotel comes just days after another lost animal was found in an even stranger place – a Ministry of Defence training base in Surrey.
The great fox-spider hadn't been seen since 1993 before it was found by Surry Wildlife Trust's Mike Waite this autumn.
"I was elated. With coronavirus there have been lots of ups and downs this year, and I also turned 60, so it was a good celebration of that.
"It’s a gorgeous spider, if you’re into that kind of thing.”
The great fox-spider, which is one of Britain's biggest arachnids, is part of the wolf-spider family and can grow up to two inches in diameter, including their legs.
They hunt food like beetles and smaller spiders at night, injecting them with venom which liquifies internal organs.
Beastly bee with massive jaws
You'd think the world's biggest bee would be easy to spot.
But Wallace's giant bee wasn't seen between 1981 and last year, when a single female of the species was rediscovered on a remote Indonesian island.
The monster bee, which is the size of a human thumb and boasts the jaws of a stag beetle, was found by photographer Clay Bolt.
Eli Wyman, who joined Mr Bolt on the trip, said: "To actually see how beautiful and big the species is in life, to hear the sound of its giant wings thrumming as it flew past my head, was just incredible."
It's named after British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who first collected the bee back in 1859.
Turtle-y miraculous find
Bigger still is the Fernandina Galápagos Tortoise, which was thought to be extinct for over 100 years.
No one had seen the giant reptile since 1906 until a lone female was found in February 2019.
He added: "On holidays over the years, I’ve discovered all kind of weird bits of archeology and ethnography.
"The general belief that there’s nothing more of interest to discover is quite mistaken.”
Mystery moth 'vanishing rapidly'
The oriental blue clearwing moth gave a researcher an incredible buzz when she rediscovered it 130 years after it was thought to have been lost to science.
Polish lepidopterist Marta Skowron Volponi found the mysterious moth in the Malaysian lowland rainforest in 2017.
Before her discovery, the only knowledge we had of the oriental blue clearwing came from a single damaged specimen collected in Indonesia in 1887.
Skowron Volponi, of the University of Gdańsk, rediscovered the moth when she noticed bright flashes of blue light on a river bank.
Along with her husband Paolo, Skowron Volponi found and documented just 12 oriental blue clearwings across three field trips, indicating the species is very rare.
And as Malaysia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, the beautiful creature might not be here for long.
“These highly vulnerable ecosystems are vanishing rapidly,” Skowron Volponi warned in her findings.
“Given the current rate of habitat loss and species extinction, it is of crucial importance to study and catalogue both species new to science and those that have been discovered many years ago and not seen since that time.”
Still out there?
Although many amazing species have been rediscovered in recent years, there are still weird and wonderful beasts that scientists haven't given up hope of finding.
These include Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, also known as Sir David's long-beaked echidna, which is known from a single specimen collected in Indonesia's Cyclops Mountains in 1961.
It was named in honour of the BBC naturalist, but it wasn't discovered by David Attenborough.
Echidnas are notable because, along with platypuses, they're among the very few mammals to lay eggs.
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Tracks found by researchers and reports from locals give the scientific community hope that Sir David's long-beaked echidna could one day be rediscovered.
Likewise, hope remains for the pink-headed duck, not seen since 1949 in India.