Australia - Artensterben

Rediscoveries in 2025: Animal species believed to be lost and extinct

In 2025, several animal species returned to the focus of scientific attention after having long been considered lost or even thought to be extinct. (© Shrews: Tatiana Petrova, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons / Snake: Photo courtesy of Professor Blair Hedges)

3. January 2026 Doreen Fräßdorf

Rediscoveries in 2025: These animal species were considered lost or extinct

Species do not simply disappear just because no one has seen them for a long time. And they are just as little “saved” just because they suddenly reappear. Rediscoveries mark a narrow line between hope and uncertainty: they show that life can endure – often, however, only barely. In 2025,

Truffles (Gallacea scleroderma) and moas

Gallacea scleroderma: a truffle-like fungus endemic to New Zealand whose spores were once dispersed by moas and which plays a central role in the forest ecosystem. (© Zac Sanson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

17. January 2025 Doreen Fräßdorf

What links extinct moas, colorful truffles, and climate change?

New Zealand, known for its unique wildlife and flora, holds many secrets from the past. One of them was revealed by a recent study in Biology Letters: the extinct upland moas (Megalapteryx didinus) were not only majestic birds, but also played a central role in dispersing colorful, truffle-like fungi such

Scientists discovered a well-preserved thylacine head with tissue in a museum in Melbourne, Australia. This museum find could help revive the extinct thylacine using genetic methods. (© Westell, William Percival, 1874-1937, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

17. October 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Putrid Museum Find Reveals 99.9% of Thylacine Genome

Researchers recently found a long-overlooked bucket in the back of a Melbourne Museum cabinet, containing a well-preserved thylacine head stored in ethanol for over 110 years. Andrew Pask, head of the Tigrr Lab at the University of Melbourne, described the sight as “gruesome” in an interview with The Guardian, noting

Nachtsittich oder Höhlensittich (Pezoporus occidentalis)

The endangered night parrot reaches a body length of up to 25 centimeters. It occurs in small subpopulations in different regions of inland Australia. (© Elizabeth Gould (1804–1841), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

26. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Australia: Largest Known Population of the Extremely Rare Night Parrot Discovered

An article published in September 2024 in the Journal of Wildlife Research reports the discovery of the largest known population of the night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis) in the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia. A team of Indigenous rangers and scientists tracked down a colony of about 50 birds –

A taxidermied huia pair (female right, male left) at the Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum. This specimen is not up for auction. (© Dr Mirko Junge, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

15. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Taxidermied Huia Pair Expected to Fetch Up to NZ$128,000 at London Auction

A rare taxidermied pair of huia birds could fetch up to NZ$128,000 at an auction in London. Organized by Roseberys London, the auction is scheduled for October 2024. The huia pair, consisting of a male and a female, dates back to the late 19th century and is considered extremely rare.

A Haast's eagle attacks already extinct New Zealand moas. The largest moas were the female South Island giant moas. They could reach a weight of up to 300 kilograms. (© John Megahan, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)

15. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Haast’s Eagle

The largest bird of prey in modern times Before humans settled New Zealand about 700 years ago and introduced invasive species like cats and rats, there were no land-dwelling mammals on the islands – aside from three species of bats. Instead, the ecosystem was dominated by approximately 250 bird species.

Mecodema oconnori, verwandter des stephens-island-laufkäfer

Images of the Stephens Island Weevil are rare; the picture shows the ground beetle Mecodema oconnori, which belongs to the same genus. (© S.E. Thorpe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

9. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Stephens Island Weevil

From isolated paradise to endangered habitat Stephens Island, a small rocky island in the Cook Strait, is renowned for its unique wildlife. Despite covering only 1.5 square kilometers, the island boasts a remarkable ecosystem that was once home to numerous endemic species, including many land and seabirds. Among its notable

The flightless Lyall's wren was a relatively small bird, with a total length of about ten centimeters. (© Avenue, GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons)

8. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Lyall’s wren

The tragic story of Lyall’s wren Like the dodo, Lyall’s wren is one of the best-known examples of the extinction of bird species, because the circumstances of its disappearance are as striking as they are tragic. The story of Lyall’s wren is often told with dramatic simplicity: a cat, brought

tasmanischer beutelwolf Thylacinus cynocephalus

Male and female thylacine, photographed around 1904 at the Washington, D.C., National Zoo. Between 1850 and 1936, 68 thylacines are documented to have lived in zoos. (© Baker; E.J. Keller., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

1. September 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

Thylacine

Tasmanian wolf or Tasmanian tiger: Neither wolf nor tiger Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman, who in 1642 was the first European to reach the island of Tasmania, reported “footprints, not unlike the claws of a tiger”. In doing so he had discovered the island’s top predator, which later became known under

New Zealand’s unique bird life evolved in isolation over millions of years. The image, created at the end of the 19th century, shows a hunting scene of moas. (© Joseph Smit, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

27. July 2024 Doreen Fräßdorf

In the Footsteps of Moas: Where New Zealand’s Flightless Birds Find Refuge

The settlement of the Pacific Islands by humans led to rapid waves of extinction for many animal species, whose dynamics are difficult to reconstruct. Among the affected species were the wingless moas, which were only found in New Zealand. These often massive birds went extinct in the 14th or 15th