Emily Chan
During an expedition to Makira, the largest forest on the island of Madagascar, researchers rediscovered 21 species that had been lost to science, including small rainbow fish and a giant millipede that hadn’t had a documented sighting in 126 years.
It’s likely that local communities knew about its existence, though. Madagascar is located off the southeastern coast of Africa.
The expedition was the first of its kind and was part of the Search for Lost Species project by wildlife conservation organization Re:wild.
A team of more than 30 researchers combed the trees, ground, and river for various mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates that haven’t been spotted for at least a decade.
“In the past, Search for Lost Species has primarily looked for one or two species on each expedition, but there are now 4,300 species that we know of around the world that have not been documented in a decade or more,” Christina Biggs, a Re:wild officer, said.
“Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot and Makira is an underexplored area within the country, so we decided to pilot a new model for lost species searches there. We convened a group of scientists to search for as many species as possible, and it proved successful.”
Initially, the expedition team had a list of 30 lost species they hoped to find. On the list, there were seven reptiles, three mammals, three fish, five spiders, and 12 insects. With the help of local guides and fishers, they were able to identify all three species of fish.
After hiking for days to local communities, they came across a Makira rainbow fish, which had been lost since 2003.
They also found several species of insects that weren’t on the original list. Entomologists identified two different species of flowering ant-like beetles that had been lost since 1958. But the most unexpected discovery of all was a giant millipede that was dark brown in color.
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