Rediscovered Species News

The Polynesian tree snail, a tiny mollusk about the size of an aspirin pill, used to be found in abundance on Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia. But about 30…

After 24 years of eluding ornithologists, a small, ground-hopping songbird known only from the tropical forests of northeastern Madagascar has been spotted by researchers once again. The dusky tetraka (Xanthomixis…

The asprete, a ray-finned freshwater fish species that lives only in Romania, has long captured Mircea Marginean’s imagination. He remembers hearing about the species in 2011, when he was a…

After 140 years, a pigeon subspecies lost to science has been found again on Fergusson Island off eastern Papua New Guinea. Using a remote camera trap, researchers photographed the black-naped…

In the mountains of Colombia, an experienced bird-watcher saw an iridescent flash of blue and green. “A hummingbird caught my attention. I got out my binoculars and was shocked to…

During what scientists have named the “Sixth Mass Extinction” (the fifth one wiped out the dinosaurs), conservationists are racing against the clock to carry out critical monitoring as quickly as…

“When we caught it, we all just looked at it and said, ‘You look ridiculous. Look how big your nose leaf is,’” Jon Flanders, director of endangered species interventions at…

For about a decade, ichthyologist Cüneyt Kaya had made it a quest to search for the critically endangered Batman River loach (Paraschistura chrysicristinae), a tiny, orange-and-brown-striped freshwater fish once found…

Mount Mulanje’s bare granite face looms above the lush surrounding landscape. Said to be the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lonely Mountain (home to Smaug the dragon), Malawi’s highest mountain also…

One of the world’s smallest and rarest chameleon species has been rediscovered in Malawi, living on the edge of extinction in just a few, scant patches of rainforest. “They are…

On a recent expedition to the remote forests of Sierra Leone, West Africa, researchers found two species of crabs new to science and rediscovered two species not seen in more…

Ten days ago, Sebastian di Martino was kayaking along the Bermejo River in Argentina’s Impenetrable National Park when he heard a splash. He looked around and saw a brown-furred animal…

The Bornean subspecies of the Rajah scops-owl (Otus brookii) was first described from the montane forests of the Malaysian state of Sabah in 1892. Since then, however, its whereabouts have…

In 1993, a lone stream frog was discovered once but never found again in the wild. Herpetologists thought the frog species went extinct before it could be studied. Then, last…

Three years ago, Panji Gusti Akbar was flipping through the pages of Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago when he came across a photo of a bird with brown wings and…

MANILA — The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 spewed enough volcanic ash into the atmosphere to cool the world. In the immediate vicinity of the volcano,…

An expedition into the cloud forests of the Bolivian Andes has uncovered 20 species new to science, including a frog that may be the smallest in the Andes, a new…

An analysis of the DNA of three wild dogs living above 4,300 meters (14,000 feet) on the island of New Guinea matches that of captive New Guinea singing dogs. These…

Armed with headlamps and flashlights, a team of researchers in northwestern Madagascar searched through the night for an elusive chameleon, Voeltzkow’s chameleon (Furcifer voeltzkowi), which hadn’t been spotted for more…

Once considered extinct, the Burmese roofed turtle (Batagur trivittata) was brought back from the brink by an ambitious conservation program. Now, almost 30 years after its rediscovery in the wild,…

The Somali sengi is a strange amalgamation of creatures. While its body is the shape and size of a mouse’s, it has spindly, gazelle-like legs that allow it to dart…

For more than 180 years, several soft-nosed chameleons from Madagascar sat together in a single species complex (Calumma nasutum) until scientists decided to take a closer look. They disentangled the…

Local villagers and government forest rangers reported seeing a gray chevrotain in the vicinity of Nha Trang, a city in southern Vietnam. Based on those survey results, a team of…

VIETNAM, July 2019 – I’m chasing a ghost, I think not for the first time, as night falls and I gather up my gear in a hotel in a village in…

An African monkey first described to science more than 150 years ago has now been elevated to full species status. The Blue Nile patas monkey is found in the Blue…

Polish researchers have rediscovered a moth in Malaysia that was previously known only from a 130-year-old museum specimen collected in Indonesia. The Oriental blue clearwing (Heterosphecia tawonoides) was rediscovered in…

EIRUNEPE, Brazil - An expedition exploring a remote watershed in the western Amazon has uncovered the first living evidence of a species of monkey not seen alive by scientists in…

LAHAD DATU, Malaysia – The rhino breeding center near the entrance to Danum Valley Conservation Area sits like an oasis of calm against the cacophony of beeps, woots and zaps…

The 1980s rock band Cinderella had its biggest hit with the song, “Don’t Know What You Got (Till it’s Gone),” riffing off the age-old proverb. Of course, Cinderella’s song is…

For the better part of the 20th century, the wooly flying squirrel (Eupetaurus cinereus) was believed to have gone extinct. If that had been true, the world would have lost…