
Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides for 80 Years - sabya
http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years
======
abraae
This story resonates with me.

Here in New Zealand, we have many native species of birds, insects, frogs,
lizards and the like that thrived when our islands were cut off from the rest
of the planet, but that have become extinct, or are in imminent danger of
being so due to introduced predators such as rats, stoats, hedgehogs, ferrets,
cats etc. etc.

It leads to the bizarre situation that conservation here is largely about
killing things.

~~~
SapphireSun
It's the same in the Galapagos islands too. I wonder how it is that rats are
so fierce that they destroy everything they touch...

~~~
aerique
That's basically what rats do. I've got pet rats and they're cute and
intelligent, but they're rodents optimized for breeding. That can breed so
fast it isn't even funny and they destroy everything with their teeth to
either eat it or build nests from the bits and pieces or just to test it out
with their teeth.

~~~
ionforce
It could be argued that every organism is optimized for breeding.

~~~
knodi123
He means well optimized, not just "did their best". Look at the Panda's
difficulties.

~~~
JBReefer
Pandas : Rats :: Bubblesort : Timsort

------
travis_brooks
Did a search to see what happened with the stick bugs and discovered the
population is now large enough they're in zoos in San Diego, Toronto, and
Bristol: [http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/01/13/16/52/revived-
au...](http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/01/13/16/52/revived-aus-stick-
insect-takes-on-world)

------
oska
Wingsuit flyby of Ball's Pyramid:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqQrWWpcT0I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqQrWWpcT0I)

------
brianclements
Reminds me of a Radiolab episode[1] about a similar effort to bring back a
specific species of tortoise in the Galapagos islands. The offending
infringing species there where goats. What was really interesting was the
method used for the eradication program.[2]

[1]
[http://www.radiolab.org/story/brink/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/brink/)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_goat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_goat)

------
clarkmoody
Multiple previous discussions on HN: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Six-
Legged%20Giant%20Finds%20S...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Six-
Legged%20Giant%20Finds%20Secret%20Hideaway,%20Hides%20for%2080%20Years&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

------
theophrastus
The old accepted view was that terrestrial arthropods are limited in size by
their system of respiration which amounts to exoskeletal pores (spiracles) and
internal airways. So terrestrial bugs can't get much bigger because of the
body volume (cubic) versus passive respiratory surface (square). (we've got a
forced air/blood circulation system so we can get bigger) Consequently it
would be fascinating to learn how close _Dryococelus australis_ is to that
theoretical limit, or has it developed some sort of active respiratory system?
(in which case, maybe it's time to start engineering insect saddles?)

------
sohkamyung
The story of the Lord Howe Island stick insect is nicely told in this award
winning short animation, "Sticky" [1].

There is also a book out now on the insects [2].

[1] [https://vimeo.com/76647062](https://vimeo.com/76647062)

[2]
[http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/7226.htm](http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/7226.htm)

------
gherkin0
Are they ever going to go back to the island and collect more specimens for
breeding (and perhaps release some captive-bread individuals to replace them)?
Even though that population was probably extremely inbred there's probably
still some genetic diversity there that wasn't represented in to two wild
specimens they managed to breed.

~~~
mojoe
Having such a genetically homogeneous population would make me nervous about
disease potentially wiping them all out. Hopefully they can keep many breeding
pairs in multiple locations around the world to prevent this.

------
gulpahum
Are those edible? They look like a good replacement for shrimps. Nothing would
guarantee their survival better than becoming a food source for humans!

~~~
elbigbad
As a counterpoint to your claim that being a food source for humans guarantees
survival, the orange roughy is a good example. It is a fish that was
discovered as tasty and then fished to 10% of its original numbers within 50
years.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_roughy#Threats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_roughy#Threats)

~~~
gulpahum
True, but I didn't think that we should go to Ball's Pyramid and eat them up.
I was thinking about mass production. Think about chicken: there are more
chickens than humans on this planet [1].

These creatures have such a great name! Nobody wants to eat crickets or worms,
but who could resist a tree lobster? It is such a great marketing name!

[1] [http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/global-
liv...](http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/global-livestock-
counts)

Edit: you are right that being a food source for humans doesn't guarantee
survival. It only happens if the food source can be mass produced.

------
cmpb
I'm a southern Louisiana (US "Deep South") native. Here, and in other areas of
the south (and elsewhere in the world), we have similarly large "cicadas",
which are basically giant crickets. They hatch once every 13 years (shorter
than most other cicadas, which hatch every 17 years) [1]. Though the hatches
produce huge numbers (sometimes causing areas of road to be literally covered
and obscured), and can sometimes be a nuisance because of their sound, they
play a very integral role in the ecological cycle and contribute to a very
diverse system of plants and animals which many people around here take great
pride in. I hope that the residents of Lord Howe Island can learn to live with
some new friends.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada)

~~~
alistairSH
Those aren't limited to the deep south. We have several broods here in VA. As
a kid, those big brood years were always amazing - so many bugs crawling
around, and their shells littering the roads for weeks. Amazing stuff.

~~~
michael_h
Chocolate covered cicadas, cicada pizza, fried cicadas. The mind reels at the
thought, but they're generally not bad at all.

When the last giant bloom came to the southern Ohio area (~2000 or so), there
were people using snow shovels to the clear the sidewalks of the carcasses.
There was one particular neighborhood where the sound was so deafening, you
couldn't hear the person next to you, even if they were shouting.

------
reustle
This needs a (2012) in the title

~~~
nothis
>Updated January 18, 20161:39 PM ET

>Published February 29, 201210:10 AM ET

I remember reading the article in 2012. I wonder what the update was? I only
skimmed, is it mentioned anywhere?

~~~
zwetan
same

I need something like a web diff

~~~
leni536
You can use the wayback machine to get old versions and diff the two raw html
files (little bit dirty, but it works). Only found changes in the wording of
the "description" and "og:description" meta tags.

<meta name="description" content="The insect is so large — as big as a human
hand — it's been dubbed a &quot;tree lobster.&quot; [-It was thought to
be-]{+Presumed+} extinct,[-but-] some enterprising ento mologists
[-scoured-]{+found them on+} a barren hunk of rock in the middle of the
[-ocean and found surviving Lord Howe Island stick insects."-]{+ocean."+} />

Edit: Is there a way to get the raw html from archive.org without the
rewritten links? It pollutes the diff badly.

~~~
zwetan
I meant something automated like google translate in chrome ;)

but yeah I see your point, still you have the issue of no older archives
existing

------
eddiegroves
All those eggs from one breeding pair, do insects not need gene diversity for
the population to succeed?

~~~
mojoe
It's possible to successfully breed inbred insects like this, because
eventually you can select out all the ones with recessive gene problems (you
can get lots of generations quickly with insects). The big issue is that such
a homogeneous population is much more susceptible to disease -- a virus or
bacteria that can kill one can probably kill them all.

------
vblord
I remember this posted from a year ago. I remember reading it and being
grossed out that it was a giant bug and not some sort of 6 legged bear. Why
that guy would ever touch that thing is beyond me.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9179292](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9179292)

------
vortico
It's interesting how this story has a true purpose, to convince the residents
of Lord Howe to allow the insects to be released on their land by the pressure
of the article's readers. Ball's Pyramid itself is perhaps even more
fascinating to me. It looks like a good place for a wizard to live...

------
trusche
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9179292](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9179292)

------
JoeAltmaier
Once humans spread and travel became commonplace, its inevitable that
'invasive species' should become a worldwide problem. It only has to happen
once; you can't ever be careful enough to avoid that. And the most invasive
species of all, which erases whole ecosystems and changes everything including
the water, soil and weather, is of course, us.

------
thescriptkiddie
> It was 12 centimeters long and the heaviest flightless stick insect in the
> world.

So there are bigger insects around, and _they can fly_?

~~~
dtparr
Meet the (up to 16.7cm) titan beetle:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_beetle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_beetle)

[http://www.odditycentral.com/animals/bugs-the-size-of-
your-h...](http://www.odditycentral.com/animals/bugs-the-size-of-your-hand-
the-titan-beetle.html)

------
michaelcampbell
Those things scare the bejeezus out of me (irrationally, I'll grant), but
these stories give me hope, if at least a little.

~~~
meagain20000
I wonder if you are also scared of lobsters. Now tarantulas, that is an animal
I wouldn't touch with a ten feet poll.

~~~
michaelcampbell
No, it's mainly insects that wig me out. Tarantulas... not so much, but I'm
not keen on spiders big enough that I can feel their weight.

In the house if a spider is found, I generally try to save it and put it
outside.

------
stuart78
That video. I'm traumatized, yet I can't look away.

------
ed_blackburn
How do they propose to rid Howe Island of rats?

~~~
ceejayoz
Poison, looks like.

[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130729-rats-...](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130729-rats-
islands-invasive-species-animals-environment/)

------
YeGoblynQueenne
Woa. It's a Rock Lobster!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZy6-fMCw4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZy6-fMCw4)

------
niels_olson
Don't pitch the bugs. Pitch their shells. As buttons or jewelry.

~~~
fabulist
Personally I thought the detail about them forming pair bonds and cuddling was
the most adorable thing I had ever heard about a bug. I'd save that species.

------
cconcepts
If only everything on HN had a wingsuit flyby

~~~
viraptor
Wingsuit flyby of spacex landing...

~~~
tomphoolery
wingsuit flyby of Heartbleed disclosure...

~~~
cconcepts
wingsuit flyby of the latest "startup" getting a small fortune in
funding....chapter 11 before the 'chute deploys

~~~
anon4
Wingsuit flyby of wingsuit flyby of man posting a comment on HackerNews ️

