Our planet apparently has a total land mass of about 148.9 million square kilometres, where some is land, some is ice sheet, some is desert, and some is rocky terrain, with only 5% - 19% of the Earth’s land surface remaining free from major human modification, light pollution, or industrial footprint.
And how many people inhabit it? According to the live tracker Worldometer Population Clock, the current total is about 8,319,000,000 and counting. The math is beyond my capabilities, but I am sure someone will figure out how much space each person takes up.
Elusive or extinct?
Over the years, various animals have been seen once, and maybe never seen again for whatever reason. Maybe they are elusive creatures, but maybe that last one spotted is now extinct. Who knows? But it’s not surprising that we lose track of creatures now and then. Our planet is mind-bogglingly diverse, with different environmental conditions that give rise to different characteristics of weird animals in all shapes and sizes. Some evolve for the dark, gloomy depths of the oceans, while others eke out an existence in dry, seemingly inhospitable deserts.
The okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is a weird-looking creature we didn’t know existed until the early 1900s, and it remains difficult to observe in the wild today, with an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 left. They are a curious-looking creature, and look as if they were put together with leftover parts from other animals, with zebra-like markings in odd places, a horse’s head and a neck similar to a giraffe’s, all of which is great camouflage to help them avoid becoming someone’s breakfast. They live exclusively in the tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa, and only around 150 specimens exist in captivity in conservation programmes in select zoos around the world.
One that really is extinct now is the brilliant orange Golden Toad, an amphibian formerly native to a small high-altitude region in Costa Rica. The last seen was a male in 1989, and it probably vanished due to a combination of climate change and chytrid fungus – a fatal skin disease that prevents the absorption of essential minerals and salts, and, importantly, oxygen, through their skin.
Zug’s Monitor Lizard (Varanus zugorum) was discovered in the remote rainforests of Indonesia in 1994, but hasn’t been seen by scientists since, though researchers still hope it survives undetected in the high forest canopy.
Looking below the surface of our planet’s waters, some elusive creatures might still exist. One is the Megalodon. It is said that it still lurks in the Mariana Trench, but this massive 60-foot shark is said to have become extinct 3.6 million years ago. If it were alive, its massive bite marks would surely be visible on modern whale populations, its teeth would litter our beaches, and deep sonar would easily spot it.
Neptune’s Cups Sponge is giant sea sponge that was presumed extinct until it reappeared in 2011. It has a massive, goblet shape that grows over a meter wide and tall. Full-grown specimens were historically harvested and used as bathtubs for children in the 19th and early 20th centuries, though I find that hard to believe personally!
In the massive Sonoran Desert, spreading over the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, is the weird Grasshopper Mouse that hunts scorpions, turns their venom into its painkiller and howls into the air like a little wolf. Not a rarity I admit, but weird nevertheless.
Rare creatures of Portugal
The Iberian Lynx aren’t so rare here now thanks to successful conservation plans, but there are others that are not so well known. One is the Spanish Imperial Eagle (Aquila adalberti), a magnificent and rare raptor hiding in southwestern areas and the Alentejo plains, known for its white feathers, like epaulettes, on its shoulders. Their numbers are apparently growing, with up to 840 breeding pairs, thanks to dedicated conservation programmes. And further afield in the Azores is the Azores Noctule (Nyctalus azoreum) – a rare species of bat that is known to feed during the daylight hours. Despite numbers of around 2,000 to 5,000, it is listed as vulnerable or endangered.