Can we learn to love baby Lord Howe stick insects? [video]
Posted by staff / March 4, 2012
Can the people of Lord Howe Island off the coast of Australia learn to love an insect as big as an adult hand? Conservationists certainly hope so, but to give the, um, “little” guys a hand, they produced this video of the first ever hatching of the extremely rare Lord Howe stick insect, or Dryococelus australis.
The species was thought to have gone extinct in the early part of the last century thanks to a rat invasion that found them a tasty treat, but after only twenty-four individuals were found living under a bush on the intimidating Ball’s Pyramid.
Anything that’s a) adapted well enough to have an escape hatch built into their eggs, and b) managed to get out of a whole that small deserves a chance, doesn’t it?
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