We thought that the tree lobsters were killed off more than 80 years ago. We were wrong.
On tiny Lord Howe Island off of Australia, there once lived a race of incredibly large bugs found nowhere else in the world. The large, stick-like bugs were the size of a man’s hand. Then a shipwreck in 1918 allowed rats onto the island, in two years, the tree lobsters were gone. Forty years later, they were considered extinct.
But then just a few years ago, explorers on Ball’s Pyramid, a nearby mountainous spec of land (also the name of Melbourne’s hottest gay night club), found bugs still alive. Australian authorities have since taken a few in and bred them, in hopes of returning the bugs to Lord Howe Island.
It goes without saying here that the Aussies are completely nuts. Not only was this species nearly wiped out, but we didn’t even have to do anything to erase them from existence. Now they want to reintroduce the giant bugs? Get ready for some fat rats on the island.
One thought on “A bug as big as your hand”
Comments are closed.