In a world of dwindling resources and ever-increasing extinction rates it is always remarkable to see an exception to the rule – particularly one composed of a series of chance happenings and involving one of the strangest species and off-the-map locations on Earth: an odd insect that has survived only under one bush, on one bare rock face, hundreds of feet in the air and miles from other land.
Ball's Pyramid is a towering 2,000-foot spire that shoots up from the waters of the Pacific Ocean, essentially bare, desolate and isolated – except that it is home to what might be the most endangered insect on the planet.
This remarkable little stick insect was thought to have died out after their single largest habitat – the adjacent Lord Howe Island – was the site of a shipwreck that spread black rats (which ate the insects) nearly a hundred years ago. Since their rediscovery scientists have brought sample populations back to shore in order to breed them in captivity.
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