A Scary Island That Has Been Keeping a Secret for 80 Years

[Music] all right get ready for some woowoo this strange island has been keeping a secret for 80 years our story begins in the Tasman Sea the body of water between Australia and New Zealand it's exactly here where the Lord Howe Island group had been lying unperturbed until 1788 that year changed everything in the history of this lost place as British lieutenant Henry Lidge bird ball discovered the central island of this group as he was on his way to a nearby Norfolk Island having fulfilled his mission ball was heading home when he decided to claim a newly uncovered territory for his country at that time nobody could have imagined the surprises this island would have in store for people decades later after balls discovery permanent settlements had already been established on the main island by 1834 despite being just 6.2 miles long Lord Howe Island represented and still represents an idyllic picture of a tropical paradise as for the rest of the islands belonging to this group they were mostly rocky volcanic land masses once people started finding out about the islands they became a place of buzzing activity and world-changing benchmarks right after the discovery the place was used as a port for whalers but when this industry went into decline another precious commodity was discovered on the islands Kancha palms somewhere around the 1880s entrepreneurs started exporting these trees from the island as a result these flowering palms now grow all over the world and after the Second World War Lord Howe Island became a popular tourist destination nowadays this magical place with all kinds of natural historical and cultural sites can proudly boast the title of a world heritage site the waters surrounding the islands form the Lord Hal marine park and all of the groups 28 islands are protected by the Lord Howe Island Act of 1981 however with all that lush terrain and unexplored forests home to countless wildlife species you can't help but wonder what mysteries this magical place hides well the islands do indeed have their own secrets and one of the biggest ones came to light not too long ago no it wasn't found out on the main island to get to it we'll need to head south west from the middle of the group where we'll run into the famous balls pyramid and why is it so well known there are no people living on this island and no beautiful beaches or bright exotic flowers it's simply the tallit volcanic rock formation in the entire world standing at 1844 feet high this island is a remnant of an ancient six million year old volcano yeah it's pretty weird that for a whole century after this huge sky piercing rock was discovered by the already familiar to you lieutenant Henry ball nobody stepped on its land it wasn't until 1882 that geologist Henry Wilkinson organized the first documented journey to this place and that opened the floodgates people immediately wanted to conquer this rebellious tower of volcanic rock however for a long time nobody managed to subdue balls pyramid for instance in 1964 some Australian climbers had to stop their ascent when their supplies ran out but in 1965 just a year later four members of the Sydney rock climbing club eventually reached the top before we get ahead of ourselves though it's worth mentioning that rock climbing was completely banned on the island throughout the 80s and if you want to give it a shot nowadays get ready for a lengthy and complicated application process once you've gone through all the red tape you just might be able to triumph over the hospitable Rock and you need to be especially persistent in your application process if you want to see this Islands huge mystery we've been building up so far alright we won't keep you waiting any longer this rocky hostile island is home to a very rare life-form dry Yoko Seles Australis also known as the Lord Howe Island stick insect or my personal favorite the tree lobster this massive bug is actually in the same family as walking-sticks but they should call this thing a walking branch by the size of it anyways these guys were abundant on the island until the beginning of the 20th century and then the species just disappeared out of nowhere as if the shiny black insects had never existed at all not to mention dry Yoko Seles Australis is an enigma in and of itself it behaves dramatically different from other insects of this family first of all they mate for life can you imagine insects and love excuse me I don't mean to bug you but I find you attractive this fact alone puzzles researchers to no end why would they do that if the females don't even need the males in order to reproduce they can do that completely on their own so what's with the lifelong coupling nobody knows unfortunately the fate of these insects was a tragic one and yes that was past tense in 1918 a ship ran aground near the Lord Howe Island bringing disaster along with black rats these rodents managed to completely wipe out the entire population of the stick insects within just two years in 1920 scientists declare the species extinct knowing all this imagine the pure amazement of a group of climbers that encountered the remains of drea casella's Australis when they were ascending balls pyramid in 1964 this finding seemed strange as the insects hadn't been seen neither dead or alive for 44 years several decades passed and within this period of time scientists discovered even more dead specimens unfortunately they couldn't find the source of the insects the big mystery finally came to light in 2001 when a group of researchers traveled the ball's pyramid to conduct their own investigation they had no luck during the day so they decided to conduct their research at night after all the insects were evolutionarily nocturnal good news their persistence paid off they ended up finding 24 of these bugs that had been so appropriately nicknamed the rarest insect in the world it was a huge breakthrough nowadays these guys aren't that extremely rare anymore in 2003 a pair of them was taken from the island for breeding purposes and by 2016 they'd already hatched over thirteen thousand eggs these eggs were distributed across zoos in Canada the US and Europe to make sure there will always be a backup in case any problems with the main group arise and that's how a tiny community that had managed to survive and hide from people for 80 years saved itself as a species do you feel happy for the drought casella's Australia's I'm happy that I can even pronounce it would you call yourself a happy bee upon hearing this news well apparently that expression isn't as ridiculous as it sounds in 2016 scientists found that bees feel emotions at least they feel something akin to happiness when they get sugar water london-based researchers discovered that bees who were given sweet treats responded to stimuli faster than those left without any yummy this led to the conclusion that bees can feel positive emotions going even further if they can feel happy then surely they experience negative emotions too if you ever find yourself running away from a bee you tried to swat but missed then you probably made him angry or scared and he's coming after you for revenge be afraid actually in recent years scientists have made a lot of amazing discoveries having to do with the animal kingdom for example researchers just discovered the Greenland shark in 2017 according to records with a lifespan of over 400 years this shark is the longest living vertebrate on our planet even longer than my stepmother one of the reasons for such longevity is the environment the animal lives in the freezing waters of the ocean floor are well known for significantly slowing down metabolism but scientists still hope that these sharks hold other secrets to a long life that we humans might be able to get in on and yet even more good news thanks to incredible and successful conservation efforts humpback whales and pandas are no longer considered endangered species the giant panda was moved from endangered to vulnerable on the list of species at risk of extinction that happened after a number of giant pandas in the wild in China reached 1864 in 2014 which meant a 17% increase in the population as for humpback whales nine out of 14 populations of the species were removed from the list one was marked threatened and only four are still in danger isn't that fantastic do you know any other positive wildlife news what you dare to hold a giant stick insect in your hand Oh tell us in the comments below don't forget to click subscribe to stay on the bright side of life you

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 3,298,920

Rating: 4.543694 out of 5

Keywords: discovery, bright side, bright side videos, mysterious island, facts about Earth, facts about planet, Tasman Sea, Lord Howe Island Group, mystery, secret places, amazing facts, secret island

Id: y5KuzI0GeZo

Length: 10min 56sec (656 seconds)

Published: Fri May 25 2018