By Staff
Many of you probably noted the recent news splashes about the rediscovery of what was thought to be an extinct animal, the almiqui. Indigenous to Cuba, it is an incredibly ugly little anteater type beast that looks more like a cartoon caricature than a real animal. Since Cuba is well populated with people and the last sighting was in 1999 it was presumed the almiqui had gone the way of the dodo bird. However, a month or so ago a Cuban farmer captured one, in effect resurrecting the almiqui from the dead.
Actually, the re-finding as it's technically called, of presumed extinct species is not that rare. Typically several occur every year. However, most are nondescript bugs, plants or amoeba from some obscure jungle and its existence only known by a few specialized scientists to begin with. Understandably, us common folks seldom get very excited about such things.
It's when the re-found species is a higher life form that once lived among us such as the almiqui that it gets more interesting to us laypersons. Though such occurrences are much more rare they do still happen. You old timers may remember the discovery of the ceolocanth, a large ocean fish thought to have been extinct for some 60,000 years. Now that was cool. In just the last few years a number of creatures of only slightly less significance have been rediscovered. An extinct turkey once found throughout the South Pacific was recently re-found in New Guinea, an extinct shark has just been found in a river in Borneo and now with hordes of people pushing deep into the Amazon a number of South American birds once thought extinct are resurfacing.
This leads us to speculate what other secrets Ma Nature is still hiding. Just 10 years ago a large, antelope-like animal completely unknown to science was discovered in Vietnam. It has long, straight horns like an oryx antelope but DNA tests put it in the ox family. Despite decades of French, American and Vietnamese soldiers chasing each other through the jungles and the entire country being defoliated with agent orange this creature, named the Vu Quang, somehow managed to remain anonymous. Then there's the giant squid. From sucker marks appearing on whales and ships and rotted portions of giant squids washing up onto beaches we positively know they exist but no one has ever seen a live one.
Re-finding supposedly extinct species is a difficult prospect. Once a species is deemed extinct funding instantly vanishes. Few agencies are willing to spend money chasing ghosts. Scientists must follow the money so they move on to more fertile endeavors. Take the Tasmanian tiger, not a cat but more like a marsupial wolf with stripes. The last known one died in captivity in the early 1900s and the species was declared extinct. Yet some Tasmanian residents believe a few still roam the remote, desolate island. The Tasmanian tiger was (is?) strictly nocturnal, as are the masses of deadly venomous brown snakes crawling amongst the dense brush covering the island. Tasmania has perhaps the highest concentrations of venomous snakes in the world. With no funding and such daunting circumstances theres not much enthusiasm to seriously look for the Tasmanian tiger.
Now the ivory billed woodpecker which once inhabited our Southeastern states is in the limelight. At roughly the size of a crow it was the worlds largest woodpecker, that is until it was declared extinct in the mid 1900s. A recent audio tape recorded deep within the Florida Everglades may, with much emphasis on may, contain the distinct pecking sounds of an ivory billed woodpecker. Who knows? Unlikely but certainly not impossible.
Experts estimate that some 30,000 species go extinct every year, many even before they are discovered. That's roughly three species vanishing from the earth every hour. Of course, most are the aforementioned lower life forms that naturally come and go in Mother Natures endless quest for the perfect species. Nevertheless, it's heartening to get one back now and then. Carpe diem.
Larry Lyons writes a weekly outdoor column. Reach him at larrylyons@beanstalk.net