I've brought this topic up before when the scientists here discuss the  
confidence in their beliefs and convictions.  I continue to wonder how 
much political correctness is continually getting pushed into mainstream 
"science" today.  I believe more than most are willing to admit...

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1315964/One-extinct-
animals-turn-again.html


Back from the dead: One third of 'extinct' animals turn up again
By David Derbyshire Environment Editor

Conservationists are overestimating the number of species that have been 
driven to extinction, scientists have said.

A study has found that a third of all mammal species declared extinct in 
the past few centuries have turned up alive and well.

Some of the more reclusive creatures managed to hide from sight for 80 
years only to reappear within four years of being officially named 
extinct in the wild.

The shy okapi – which resembles a cross between a zebra and a giraffe – 
was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1901.
After increasingly rarer sightings, it vanished from the wildlife radar 
for decades from 1959, prompting fears that it had died out.
But five years ago researchers working for the WWF found okapi tracks in 
the wild. 

Other mammals ‘back from the dead’ include the rat-like Cuban solenodon, 
the Christmas Island shrew, the Vanikoro Flying Fox of the Solomon 
Islands, the Australian central rock rat and the Talaud Flying Fox of 
Indonesia.

The revelations come as the world’s leading conservationists prepare for 
a major United Nations summit on biodiversity in Nagoya, Japan, next 
month. 

Many scientists believe the world is going through a new ‘mass 
extinction’ fuelled by mankind – and that more species are disappearing 
now than at any time since the dinosaurs vanished 65million years ago. 

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 22 
per cent of the world’s mammals are at risk of extinction. In Britain, 
more than two plant and animal species are being wiped out each year.
But while the report does not play down the threat from deforestation, 
overfishing or habitat destruction, it raises questions about the way 
species are classified as extinct.

Dr Diana Fisher, of the University of Queensland, Australia, compiled a 
list of all mammals declared extinct since the 16th century or which 
were flagged up as missing in scientific papers.

‘We identified 187 mammal species that have been missing since 1500,’ 
she wrote in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 
‘In the complete data-set, 67 species that were once missing have been 
rediscovered. 

More than a third of mammal species that have been classified as extinct 
or possibly extinct, or flagged as missing, have been rediscovered.’

Mammals that suffered from loss of habitat were the most likely to have 
been declared extinct and then rediscovered, she said. 
Species spread out over larger areas were also more likely to be wrongly 
classified as extinct.

The mistakes cannot be blamed on primitive technology or old fashioned 
scientific methods.  

‘Mammals missing in the 20th century were nearly three times as likely 
to be rediscovered as those that disappeared in the 19th century,’ Dr 
Fisher added. 

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