NPR: Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years (was thought to be extinct)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years

by Robert Krulwich

No, this isn't a make-believe place. It's real.

?t=1330533368&s=3
Rod Morris/www.rodmorris.co.nz

They call it "Ball's Pyramid." It's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago. A British naval officer named Ball was the first European to see it in 1788. It sits off Australia, in the South Pacific. It is extremely narrow, 1,844 feet high, and it sits alone.

What's more, for years this place had a secret. At 225 feet above sea level, hanging on the rock surface, there is a small, spindly little bush, and under that bush, a few years ago, two climbers, working in the dark, found something totally improbable hiding in the soil below. How it got there, we still don't know.

Here's the story: About 13 miles from this spindle of rock, there's a bigger island, called Lord Howe Island.

FULL story at link.

[warrior1]

1. that was agonizing

watching the little guy get out of his egg.

[tblue37]

11. Especially at the end, when it seems it should have been easier,

since the baby was almost all the way out. But it seemed as though the back feet were superglued inside the egg, even after almost the entire back legs were already out. It shouldn’t be that hard to get born. It seems a sloppy evolutionary design to put a baby that huge inside an egg that tiny!

I don’t like insects, especially big ones, but I do like biodiversity, and I hate the idea of a swarm of non-native black rats wiping out a native species that was part of the ecosystem and food chain on the island.

Also, they really do look sort of like the “tree lobsters” the islanders used to call them. Lobsters are sort of like giant insects—arthropods both, after all.

Amazing how delighted that guy looks about having those monsters crawling on his hand! (I am getting creep-out goosebumps just from writing about them!)

However, if I were one of the current islanders, I am not sure I would vote to have such creatures reintroduced into my homeland (though I'd be delighted to see the rats eradicated). I want to think I'd do the right thing for biodoversity, but I am seriously creeped out by the beasties.

[Bicoastal]

2. Ick...

...I think I was better off believing they were extinct.

[xchrom]

3. Du rec. Nt

[SpartanDem]

4. Kill it, Kill it !!!

OMG that thing is awful(can you tell I really really hate bugs?)

[stuntcat]

5. preshuss!

glad someone's lookin out for them!

[frogmarch]

6. Them!

Noooooo!

[Gabi Hayes]

9. look out, Peter!

[mmonk]

7. Great article. Thanks.

[frogmarch]

8. What an amazing story!

The article is wonderful. Thanks for posting it, Steve.

We're still here. Don't let us go.

I'm glad that there are people who care enough to try to save these remarkable animals.

[Rex]

10. Let me be the first to welcome our future overlords!!!

All hail our six legged leaders!!!

[undergroundpanther]

12. Cool!

I have handled big insects before.A hissing cockroach,a huge waterbug,I don't fear them.They don't seem to bite or sting.The strangeness I felt when holding a huge insect was the weight of it and it was a cold creature to my touch. I'd want them back if I lived on Lord Howe Island!

[Zalatix]

13. Ever seen a grown man jump to the top of a 6-story building?

Well, if you put one of those things on my hand, you would see it happen right before your eyes!

[joshcryer]

14. Incredible story, thank you so much for posting it!

[DiverDave]

15. god, those things freak me out

no thanks, you can keep em

[MerryBlooms]

16. Very cool! Thanks for sharing.