It is not only the finding of a species new to science that is exciting. To discover a living individual of a species long thought to have been extinct and lost forever is, in many ways, even more rewarding. It gives us a little hope to know that some individuals of a species that, after much searching in the wild, has been officially listed as “extinct” might, just might, still be around. Because then we can give it another chance.
I visited Ghana soon after the Miss Waldron’s red colobus was pronounced extinct and met a biologist who believed that a group of these monkeys still existed in a remote, swampy part of the country. Immediately I wanted to go and search for them. Of course, I could not go, and anyway it seems the rumors were probably just rumors. But I could imagine the thrill of announcing to the world that these monkeys were not extinct after all. I can so well understand why people obstinately continue searching for some animal or plant that they feel certain is out there somewhere—if only they could find it.
Recently, when I was in Australia, I met those who felt sure that the “extinct” Tasmanian wolf still exists. Indeed, I was given a book listing all the recorded “sightings” of the creature. And people who know Tasmania describe remote, hard-to-penetrate forests where, they say, this animal could still exist. I was given the cast of a paw print of one of the last known individuals, and as I look at it I think… perhaps, just perhaps, his great-grandchildren are hiding out there.
The rediscovery of species thought to be extinct is known as the Lazarus Syndrome. Unlike their namesake in the Bible, they have not, of course, been resurrected from the dead—they were there all the time. Some of them, such as Lord Howe’s giant stick insect, are exotic and capture the imagination of the general public, creating headlines in international newspapers.