20 Animals Thought to be Extinct Found Alive

The species was declared extinct in 1979, but things seemed hopeful when a dog in Wyoming brought home a dead specimen two years later. In the nineties, the US Fish and Wildlife Service led programs to reintroduce captive-bred individuals to their native habitats, but current populations are still small.

In the 1940s, a hydroelectric dam in Japan's Lake Tazawako made the water more acidic and wiped out the highly-sensitive kunimasu salmon that lived only in that lake. It turns out that 100,000 kunimasu eggs had been transported to another lake 310 miles south of Tazawako; however it wasn't until 2010 that a Japanese professor and his team discovered the salmon in the new location.

This adorable little guy was thought to be extinct before it was rediscovered by German herpetologists in 1994. They are native to New Caledonia, where the population continues to decline due primarily to habitat loss.

Eastern quolls were thought to have gone extinct on the Australian mainland more than 50 years ago. But a taxidermied specimen from 1989 proves that they were around much longer than anybody thought. Locals who spotted the dead animal on the side of the road stuffed it and kept it at home, until recently when they handed it over to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Named for the long noses found in males of the species, the Pinocchio lizard had eluded researchers for almost four decades. In 2005, researchers found the creatures in a cloud forest in Ecuador. They discovered that the lizards turn pale while they sleep at night and crawl really slowly while they move around during the day. What those long noses are for is still a mystery, however.

After officials drained a toxic, malaria-filled swamp in Israel's Hula Valley back in the 1950s, several species, including the Hula Frog were wiped out. It was the first amphibian ever to be declared extinct. But, almost 60 years later, researchers came across a male adult specimen on a routine patrol.

The elusive ivory-billed woodpecker was officially declared extinct in 1994, but the bird was believed to have died off decades earlier. At about 20 inches long and 30 inches from wing to wing, it's one of the world's largest woodpeckers. And despite hard evidence, various reports have led scientists to believe the woodpecker still persists.

The Myanmar Jerdon's babbler hadn't been seen for more than 70 years when scientists stumbled across one in 2014. When they heard it's call, they recorded it and played it back, and out popped the little brown bird. A subspecies of the Jerdon's babbler found only in Myanmar, the birds have been almost completely wiped out by habitat destruction.

The Jerdon's tree frog, which has a strange habit of feeding its unhatched eggs to its tadpoles, was considered extinct for 140 years before scientists found it in 2010. A team of researchers spotted the elusive creature after a three-year search in India. The frog probably went unnoticed because it dwells in areas that are poorly studied by scientists and it makes its home in trees almost 20ft high, according to The Verge.

Measuring up to 6 inches in length (as big as a human hand), these stick insects look to be the stuff of nightmares. But the creatures are so rare and secluded that we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. They were believed to have gone extinct around 1920 from their habit Lorde Howe Island, located between Australia and New Zealand. But in 2001, a team of dedicated scientists found the insects on an old volcano 12 miles away from the island.

The black and white New Zealand storm petrel was thought to be extinct for more than 150 years when bird watchers discovered one in 2003 near the Mercury Islands. Scientists wondered if the bird was just an oddly-colored member of a common species of storm petrel, but DNA testing confirmed the birds they had seen were, in fact, the same species from the 1800s.

The Omura's whale is the rarest species of whale on earth. In fact, scientists had only seen dead specimens that washed up on beaches before biologists captured video of the whales in 2013. They were able to identify 44 groups of the elusive mammals, giving hope to the marine conservationists who previously considered it extinct.

After being considered extinct for 178 years, this red-faced beauty was spotted by a group of researchers hiking in Nepal in 2016. The group saw just two individuals at first, but when they returned to the area the next day, they saw eight more, according to initially saw just two individuals, Australian Geographic reports.

If these blue birds look familiar, it's because they were the inspiration for the parrot in the animated movie, "Rio." They were presumed to be extinct in the wild for the last 15 years, but a single Spix's macaw was captured on video flying through trees in Brazil. However, experts aren't yet sure if this is a wild macaw. Pedro Develey, head of the Brazilian Society for the Conservation of Birds, told BBC that the bird may have been freed by a poacher trying to avoid arrest.

No, that's not a Furby. It's a tiny primate found in Indonesia that weighs less than 2 ounces and measures only about 4 inches from head to tail. They were thought to have gone extinct in the early 20th century, but researchers spotted several of the cuddly creatures alive in 2008. The pygmy tarsier has long fingers with claws that may help them grab onto tree limbs.

Before its rediscovery in 1938, it was assumed that this fish had gone extinct 65 million years ago along with the dinosaurs. These fish grow to be larger than humans and survive 1/2 mile below the waves. Image: Alberto Fernandez Fernandez

These nocturnal ants were thought to have gone extinct 15-20 million years ago, until they were discovered in Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina in 2006. Image: www.antweb.org

This species native to Isle of Pines, a small island off the coast of Caledonia, was considered extinct until its rediscovery in 1993. These guys are also referred to as Bocourt’s terrific skinks.

This turtle wasn't seen for almost a century and was considered extinct until its rediscovery in 1994. These reptiles thrive only in one location in Myanmar and are critically endangered. Unfortunately, their meat is considered a delicacy and can sometimes be found in Asian markets.

Varanus douarrha was first encountered in 1823 by French naturalist René Lesson. The scientist intended on bringing the specimen home for closer analysis, but the creature went down in a shipwreck off the Cape of Good Hope less than a year later. The medium-sized monitor lizard was since thought lost to science until 2017.