BIG OLE BUGS MAKING A COMEBACK
In 1997, a movie entitled “Starship Troopers” was released. This movie involved Earth being attacked by giant “bug” aliens, and humans engaging in intergalactic warfare to combat the violence. Although the bug in the photo resembles something that might attack Earth, they’re completely harmless. Additionally, rather than being battled by Mobile Infantry, these insects are being rehabilitated by Australian scientists in an attempt to be reintroduced into the wild.
The Dryococelus australis, or “tree lobster”, used to roam freely around Lord Howe Island, just east of Australia, masquerading as pieces of wood. Fishermen would use these 12 cm long stick insects for bait, as they were about as long as any other bait-fish. However, in 1918, a British supply ship was evacuated on the island after being run ashore. During the nine-day repair of the vessel, a handful of stow-away black rats made their way onto the island from the ship. These furry fellas quickly discovered the tasty tree lobsters. After two years of these rats roaming and grazing, the tree lobsters presumably went extinct.
None were seen after 1920. That is until climbers scaling Ball’s Pyramid (a small but tall rock, near the island), in the 1960’s, reported seeing “recently dead” corpses of the insects. Due to the creatures’ nocturnal nature and a lack of desire to bug hunt in the dark, no follow up happened. In 2001 David Priddel and Nicholas Carlile, two Australian scientists, decided to pursue this follow up. Patches of potentially-life-supporting vegetation on the rock were visible to the men from the water. The men scaled 500 feet up the vertical face and found nothing but a few crickets. Upon their disappointed decent down the rock, the men saw what appeared to be fresh droppings of a large insect. The origin of this poop sparked curiosity and inspired a nighttime voyage to investigate. Carlile and a local ranger, Dean Hiscox scaled the rock during the dark of night to see if they could catch the owner of the poop on a midnight stroll. The men reached the bushy plant believed to be the home and saw two gigantic, shiny bodies. Beneath them were more of their friends, 24 tree lobsters total.
A few more extensive searches over the course of a couple years proved the insects on the Pyramid to be the last ones.
Logistics of the insects’ travel are still unknown, however theories exist. Another mystery is how the community thrived off of just one patch of plants. The only thing important at the moment to the scientists was the unpredictability and rarity of these bugs’ existence. The scientists immediately pushed for protection and a breeding program in order to continue the future of the tree lobsters.
The next step was to persuade the Australian government into allowing the transition of the animals. Due to the fragile state of their existence, the subject was debated until 2003. On Valentine’s Day that year the team went to retrieve four of the insects to be brought back to labs. One man received a pair which unfortunately died within two weeks of his care. The last two, named “Adam” and “Eve” were taken to the Melbourne Zoo, under the care of Patrick Honan.
Reproduction was successful after a few hiccups involving Eve almost dying, amongst other things. The population is expanding and now efforts are being made to return the insects to their original home on Lord Howe Island. However, the island is still running with the rats from before. The prominent idea to combat the rats is a mass extermination. Unfortunately, Lord Howe Island also has a human population that might not appreciate bugs that look like something out of a sci-fi movie crawling all around where they live.
There are a lot of factors right now regarding the future of these insects. However, the past is interesting and the present is fascinating. These tree lobsters have proven to be an interesting rediscovery and continue to captivate scientists and outdoorsmen like me.
-Mike
Read more via NPR: http://n.pr/1E2VgdT Photos courtesy of NPR in above link. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800916315907