Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.
On a remote peninsula in Indonesian Papua, a species long thought extinct by scientists has been confirmed to survive. The evidence did not come from a formal survey. It began with conversations with Tambrauw elders, who described a forest glider they had known for generations. Their accounts, combined with earlier photographs, led researchers to verify the continued existence of the ring-tailed glider, reports Mongabay’s John Cannon.
The finding can be described as a rediscovery, though that framing reflects a scientific perspective, not a local one. For the Tambrauw, the animal was never lost. It remains part of a body of knowledge tied to hunting, story and custom. The glider also carries cultural significance, including a role in initiation practices. That status affected how openly it was discussed with outsiders and helps explain why earlier expeditions did not document it.
In Papua, similar accounts have surfaced in recent years. Fieldwork has also confirmed the persistence of other animals once listed as extinct, including a long-fingered possum and Attenborough’s echidna. Each case reflects a similar dynamic. Scientific absence does not necessarily mean actual absence; it can reflect a gap in access or trust.
A parallel line of research, focused on birds, points to the broader value of long-held observation. In a global study drawing on Indigenous and local memory, researchers reconstructed changes in bird communities over roughly eight decades. Participants consistently described a shift toward smaller-bodied species, a finding that aligns with ecological studies but extends the timeline of observation.
The knowledge behind such observations is cumulative and often systematic. It develops through repeated interaction with specific landscapes. Hunters and farmers notice patterns because their livelihoods depend on them. Over time, these observations form a baseline that helps people notice when conditions shift. Where formal monitoring is recent or sparse, this record can fill gaps that instruments cannot.
Memory, though, is not a perfect archive. It depends on transmission, and that can weaken. Younger generations may inherit a diminished sense of what once existed. Relying only on short-term data sets carries a different risk, narrowing the frame of reference and understating the scale of change.
Work in Papua points to a different arrangement. Scientific methods provide verification and comparability. Indigenous knowledge offers continuity and context. Used together, the two can do more than either alone. In places where ecosystems remain poorly documented, that combination may be the most reliable way to understand what is still there — and what has already been lost.
Read the full story by John Cannon here.
Banner image: A young ring-tailed glider (Tous ayamaruensis). Image courtesy of Arman Muharmansyah.
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