Forrest Galante is a world renowned wildlife biologist and TV Host. His mission is to inspire and educate people about animals and adventure through the media, including hosting programs on Discovery Channel, on-camera expert interviews, and production of his own wildlife and natural history shows.
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00In the last 15 years alone, some of the rarest creatures on Earth have clawed their way back
00:05from the dead. These aren't cryptids or rumors. These are real discoveries. And today, I'm walking
00:11you through five of the wildest comeback stories I've ever heard of. First up, the Wondawoy tree
00:17kangaroo. This is one of the most remarkable discoveries in recent memory, not because of how
00:23well known the animal was, or because it was something I desperately wanted to look for during
00:27the extinct or alive days, but because of how it completely disappeared. The Wondawoy tree
00:32kangaroo was first described in 1928 by scientists exploring the Wondawoy mountains in West Papua,
00:39Indonesia. They collected a single specimen and brought it back for documentation. And after
00:44that, it vanished. It sat on the edge of extinction and quietly filed away as possibly extinct in
00:51scientific records. Yet in 2018, that changed. A British naturalist named Michael Smith
00:57set out to explore the Wondawoy mountains. He spent days pushing through dense vegetation,
01:03setting up camp, watching the canopy, but not looking for tree kangaroos. No, Smith was a botanist. He was
01:10there to study the trees and look at the various vegetation. Then, one day, he saw movement in the
01:16trees. And perched high in the foliage was exactly what the world had hoped to see. A living Wondawoy tree
01:24kangaroo. Smith managed to photograph it. Clear, unmistakable images of a species lost for nearly a
01:31century. And just like that, the Wondawoy tree kangaroo went from legend to fact. Now, tree
01:37kangaroos are a branch of the kangaroo family uniquely adapted to life in the canopy. The Wondawoy
01:42species is one of the smallest and least understood. It has short limbs, curved claws, and a long tail for
01:48balance, allowing it to climb, leap, and move with surprising agility through the treetops. Its fur is
01:54golden brown, offering perfect camouflage in the filtered jungle light. It's quiet, shy, and solitary,
02:01which likely explains why it was so hard to find for so long. But rediscovering the species is only
02:07step one. The Wondawoy mountains remain largely unsurveyed, and there's no estimate on how many of
02:13these incredible tree kangaroos may still exist. Or if they're in immediate danger for that fact,
02:18if they're being hunted. But the threats are real. Logging and development are slowly creeping into the
02:23region. And without official protection, this fragile habitat could disappear before we ever fully
02:29understand what's living in it. Next up, a bug that is so giant and so bizarre, you wouldn't even
02:35believe that they rediscovered the Wallace's giant bee. This one is straight out of a horror movie for
02:41anyone with a fear of flying insects, and an absolute dream find for conservationists like
02:47myself. It's the largest bee species in the world, with a wingspan of over two and a half inches and
02:52massive mandibles like a stag beetle. It's been nicknamed the Flying Bulldog just because of how
02:58large and bullish and incredible it is. And yet, for decades, it vanished. The species was first
03:04discovered in 1858 by legendary naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace during its expeditions through
03:10Indonesia's North Moluccas, where another favorite extinct species of mine, the Moluccan Barbarisa,
03:16may still be out there. But that's a story for another time. After its discovery in 1858,
03:21it disappeared. No confirmed sightings, no specimens. It was just assumed extinct for more than 100 years,
03:27written off as one of the many casualties of deforestation and habitat loss that is so rampant in
03:33that part of the world. Then, in 1981, a single specimen turned up. And again, silence. Until
03:412019. That's right. That year, a small team of researchers, including nature photographer Clay Bolt,
03:49set out on a mission to find it. They combed through dense lowland forests on a remote Indonesian island,
03:54searching not for the bee itself, but for its home. Here's what made this different. Wallace giant bee
04:01doesn't build hives like honeybees. It nests inside active termite mounds, specifically arboreal termite
04:08nests built high up in the trees and canopy. It doesn't eat the termites. It just coexists,
04:13carving out a resin-lined tunnel in the side of the nest. And guess what? They found it. That's right,
04:19a single female Wallace's giant bee, alive and well, crawling out of her resin tunnel. And for the first
04:25time ever, video footage of the world's largest bee in its natural habitat. This rediscovery is exciting,
04:32but it's also concerning. The forests where this bee lives are under constant threat from logging and
04:37agricultural expansion. And because it was missing for so long, there's almost no data on how many still
04:43exist or how fragmented their habitat is. That makes it incredibly vulnerable, not just because of its size,
04:49but because of how specialized its nesting behavior is. If those termite mounds disappear, so does the
04:55bee. Wallace's giant bee is a perfect example of how rare species can vanish without ever being
05:01formally declared extinct. And it shows how critical it is to explore, listen to local knowledge, and
05:07protect what little wild habitat remains before species quietly disappear without us even noticing.
05:14Next up, one of the most Star Wars looking species in history, Attenborough's long-beaked echidna.
05:21So here's something really bizarre, an egg-laying mammal with spines, a snout like a horse,
05:27and a name that honors Sir David Attenborough himself. For over 60 years, this alien species was
05:33believed to be extinct. This creature is a living fossil, part of an ancient lineage of monotremes that
05:39includes the platypus. It lives in the remote Cyclops Mountains of northern Papua in
05:44Indonesia. The only specimen ever collected was found back in 1961 by a Dutch botanist. For
05:50decades after that, it completely vanished from science. But here's the thing, the local people
05:57never stopped talking about it. They knew it as an animal known as payanko and described its burrows,
06:03its behavior, even its distinctive snout pokes in the soil. So in 2007, a team from Edge of
06:10Existence found tracks and burrows they believed to belong to the species, but they still didn't see
06:16the animal itself. So from 2007 until November of 2023 is when the impossible finally happened.
06:26After weeks in the field, researchers retrieved camera trap footage showing a living, breathing,
06:32Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, snuffling through the undergrowth like nothing had changed
06:38in the last 60 years. This rediscovery is massive, not just because it's one of the most evolutionarily
06:44distinct mammals alive today, but because it shows how local knowledge, stories passed down from
06:50generations, and weird named creatures in native tongues can guide science in ways no satellite map
06:56ever could. The echidna is critically endangered, likely living in low numbers at high altitudes.
07:02It's hunted as a delicacy in some local traditions, and it's incredibly elusive, nocturnal, solitary,
07:09and only emerging at night to hunt earthworms, typically after a rainstorm when earthworms come out.
07:14Now that we know it still exists, conservation efforts can finally focus on protecting this
07:19ancient species and its incredible mountain home, and redefine our understanding of these
07:24unbelievable egg-laying mammals that, of course, have attributed their incredible name to the one and
07:30only the legendary Sir David Attenborough.
07:33All right, the next animal is just wild. A reptile that hadn't been seen since 1893,
07:40rediscovered over a hundred years later in a garden.
07:44Waltskaw's chameleon, a rare, short-lived, and absolutely stunning lizard from northwestern Madagascar.
07:51Back in 1890, a German biologist named Alfred Waltskaw collected a male specimen of this chameleon,
07:57and then nothing vanished. For 125 years, nobody knew if it existed. But in 2018, a group of
08:06herpetologists, armed with headlamps and binoculars, went out searching for it again. Not in the deep
08:11rainforest, but in an overgrown hotel garden. And on day six, boom, there it was. Not just one either.
08:19Three males and 15 females all snoozing on tree branches at night. And that's when they discovered
08:26something no one had ever documented before. The females change color dramatically. When stressed
08:32or when they encounter males, their skin lights up with vivid blues and blacks and whites, all thanks
08:38to the intelligent chromatophores embedded in their skin. One minute, they're leafy green and practically
08:43invisible. The next, they're flashing warning signs like neon lights. Now, here's the thing. This
08:49chameleon likely only lives for a few months, which makes it one of the shortest-lived chameleons in
08:54the entire world. Just like its close cousin, Laborde's chameleon. It hatches at the start of the rainy
09:00season, reaches maturity in just eight weeks, mates, lays eggs, and then dies again. Which is insane.
09:06It's like the life cycle of a fish or some sort of insect, but instead it's a chameleon.
09:12And that's the reason why, probably, no one saw it for over a century. Its habitat is fragmented and
09:19its future is pretty uncertain. But the rediscovery has given scientists a second chance at saving one
09:25of the coolest, most beautiful, purpley, blacky, blue, unusual chameleon species with one of the
09:32most bizarre life cycles in the entire world. Hey, I hope you guys are enjoying the summer barbecue
09:38season as much as you're enjoying this video. And I'll tell you something that made my summer
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09:53more sausage. We've got knives. We've got drinks. We've got everything to make your barbecue season
09:58better. So cheers to them. Cheers to Huckberry. Check them out in the link below. Let's get back to
10:02grilling and you get back to your video. Next up, an incredible bird that's not a pheasant or a pigeon,
10:08but instead it's the black-naped pheasant pigeon, a kind of bird that sounds made up. Imagine a
10:14ground-dwelling chicken-sized pigeon that hasn't been seen by science in over 140 years until now.
10:22Endemic to Ferguson Island off the coast of Papua New Guinea is where this bird was long thought to be
10:28extinct. The last confirmed sighting was back in 1882. For well over a century, it disappeared into
10:35legend, but locals still whispered about it. They called it AWO. They described a distinctive call,
10:41a ghostly presence in the forest. And for years, scientists dismissed it until a small team decided
10:48to believe them. In 2022, Jordan Boresma and his crew had only one day left on the island. They'd
10:54hiked mountains, crossed rivers, battled leeches and mosquitoes, and found nothing. Then, as Boresma
11:01scrolled through a camera trap out of pure exhaustion, there it was. A living black-naped pheasant pigeon.
11:08Not one, but two individuals captured on different cameras. That's just nuts. Now, this wasn't a blurry
11:15photo of a Bigfoot-like thing. It was crisp, clear evidence that the so-called extinct bird was very much
11:22alive right where the locals had always said it was. So how did it vanish in the first place? Most
11:28likely, a combination of habitat loss and predation from introduced species like feral cats and dogs.
11:34Logging on Ferguson Island has been ramped up in recent years, and this bird relies on dense,
11:40undisturbed rainforests to survive. That makes it one of the most endangered birds in New Guinea.
11:46And now that we know it still exists, the race is on to protect what little habitat remains for this
11:51incredible creature. And here's the cool part. This rediscovery didn't come from drones or high-tech
11:56gear or AI. It happened because the team listened to local hunters. They took in that knowledge. They
12:02heard from the people who knew that the bird was still out there the whole time. And this kind of
12:08collaboration is the future of conservation, the future of finding extinct species. I hope you guys
12:14enjoyed this video. I love doing breakdowns of extinct animals. To me, there is nothing more exciting.
12:19Please comment and let me know if you enjoy them as much as I do. Let me know what other lists you'd
12:23like me to go through. Take care.
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