“We did it!” Doka Nason shouted as he stared at the screen of a camera trap in Papua New Guinea. He and his team had just captured a long-sought image: that of the black-naped pheasant-pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis insularis). Believed to be extinct, this rare ground-dwelling bird was photographed as part of the Search for Lost Species program. Scientists hadn’t seen one in the wild for 140 years. Lost species are those that haven’t been observed by scientists in their natural habitat for at least a decade. Yet most have been missing for around 50 years on average, according to a new study in the journal Global Change Biology. Researchers compiled a database of 856 lost and 424 rediscovered amphibian, bird, mammal and reptile species (known collectively as tetrapods) listed since 1800. As the number of lost species globally continues to rise, they’re being lost faster than they’re being found. “The number of lost tetrapod species is increasing decade on decade,” said Thomas Evans, a conservation scientist at the Free University of Berlin and lead author of the paper. “This means that despite many searches, we are losing tetrapod species at a faster rate than we are rediscovering them.” The results highlight differences in which lost species are more likely to be found again based on location and type of animal. Sometimes, their natural traits like nocturnality or living underground make them difficult to find. Larger animals and those that can live in multiple habitats are more likely to be found again.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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