Hopeful Monsters—In Defense of Quests to Rediscover Long‐Lost Species

Wild goose chase, snipe hunt, fool's errand—these retorts typify responses of many biologists to news that someone is searching for a species considered extinct. Although these ventures can damage reputations and may offer false hope regarding the finality of extinction, genuine conservation gains often result, even for those quests that prove unsuccessful. As well as enhanced protection for regions where rediscovered species persist and new information of direct management relevance for co-occurring species, well-planned searches for long-lost species represent valuable engagement opportunities to raise awareness in the wider community about biodiversity conservation and science generally. Indeed, we suggest that “Lazarus species” (organisms rediscovered having been presumed extinct, after Dawson et al. 2006) provide beacons of hope in an increasingly desperate scramble to conserve species, shining a light on dark diversity and reminding us that population trajectories can have exceedingly long tails. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Conservation Letters

• Publication date

  2017-07-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/CONL.12386
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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