Ball S Pyramid Tree Lobster
Ball s pyramid and lord howe island.
Ball s pyramid tree lobster. The melbourne zoo now has a breeding program and hundreds of. It wasn t until 2001 more than 80 years since the last tree lobster had been seen alive that a pair of australian scientists decided to travel to ball s pyramid to search for a long lost. Two years later on valentine s day in 2003 climbers went back to ball s pyramid and retrieved two male tree lobsters and two females. One such creature is tantalisingly known as the tree lobster.
A british naval officer named ball was the first european to see it in 1788. Not long after the insects were believed extinct climbers found dead tree lobsters on ball s pyramid a sheer rock cliff of an island separated from lord howe by 12 miles of water in 2001. On a bad day it was just flat out extinct. On a good day it used to be described as the rarest insect on earth.
They were thought to be extinct for over 80 years. It is extirpated in its largest former habitat lord howe island and has been called the rarest insect in the world as the rediscovered population consisted of. 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. Scientists had thought that the tree lobster the largest flightless stick insect in the world had died out for 80 years.
Until a handfull of these amazing stick insects were found clinging to a small bush on balls pyramid off lord howe island. It wasn t until 2001 that researchers returned to ball s pyramid. Atop a tea tree 213 feet above sea level sat a few living examples of what appeared to be lord howe island stick insects.