Melondy Phillips
Staff Writer
Many species of plants and animals have been labeled extinct, however, just because they haven’t been seen in a long time does not mean they are truly “extinct.” There are nearly 350 “Lazarus species” that have been identified since 1889. It turns out that these previously labeled extinct plants and animals are still among us. One example is the Night Parrot. A photograph taken in 2013 was the first “credible sighting” of this nocturnal bird since 1912. Also, 60 years after the last sighting of the Tachira Antpitta, photographs and audio recordings, made by scientists, finally moved this rare bird from the extinct list over to the Lazarus species list.
The original rule for listing an animal as extinct was “if there were no sightings of the species for at least 50 years.” However, the revised rule states if there is “no reasonable doubt that the last individual member has died.” But who’s “doubt” counts?
With numerous remote and unexplored locations around the world, it is impossible to know, with certainty, if an animal is truly extinct. The only way to prove the non-existence or true extinction of anything is if the observer is in all places at the same time.
I, personally, have witnessed animals that we were informed “do not exist in our area” on multiple occasions. The first sighting happened in the late 1970s when I was a young child. I was riding in the back seat of our car, heading home one evening. The paved two-lane road had embankments on both sides, about two or three feet high and with a span of about 25 to 30 feet between crests. As we approached our home, I turned to look out the front windshield. A few seconds later, a very large, dark black cat with a long thick tail, silently sailed from one side of the road to the other, just in front of us. As Mom and Dad asked, back and forth, “did you just see what I saw?” I sat frozen in bemusement, pondering what I had just seen. Black panther, puma, black cougar, melan-istic leopard, black jaguar or whatever you want to call it, the image and graceful movement of that magnificent creature has been forever burned into my memory.
About 15 years later, while waiting in line for a food order, my mom started chatting with a local off-duty police officer. The conversation quickly became an excited discussion as the two started talking about their rare sighting years back. They concluded they had both witnessed the same creature that night so long ago, but he had kept quiet about it, fearing people would think he was crazy. So, even though there were three, and possibly four, people who saw this enormous and sleek, dark black cat on the same night, it “doesn’t exist.”
Many years later, in the early 2000s, I had another encounter with an animal that the game warden advised me “doesn’t exist in our state.” Five of us carried on daily routines inside the home as the ground accumulated with a thick layer of snow. I can’t remember who noticed the creature first but we all quickly gathered by the large bay window to watch it. A mountain lion perched itself on top of a boulder in our front yard. It calmly groomed itself while pausing at times to leisurely look around. None of us wanted to leave this sight, so all five of us just stood there, watching this graceful animal for the next 15 minutes. After it wandered off, quickly disappearing into the forest, my husband and I left the boys inside, with our company, while we headed out with a camera – this was before we had a smart phone and we had to go looking for the camera. The paw prints in the snow were huge, larger than our hands. We took multiple pictures of the prints and headed back inside. I called the game warden to inform them of the sighting. Well, that went well. They proceeded to tell us that we had all seen a bobcat because mountain lions did not exist in our state.
Bobcats don’t have long thick tails larger than our arms. This wasn’t a quick glance but a long observation. We saw what we saw. Just a few years later my husband came frightfully close to another one while out deer hunting with my dad.
