Ball's Pyramid | 100 Wonders | Atlas Obscura

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[@souio]

It's amazing that the insect was discovered on such a small island in the middle of nowhere. I'm from Nova Scotia and there are literally thousands of tiny islands around the coast. This video makes me realize that if that place had such a unique creature, who knows what the small, "insignificant" islands could be hiding deep in their bushes/underground/on their hilltops

[@brianjackson3885]

I got here by watching jeb Corliss ? in a flight suit lol cool vid

[@nickdamjanovic5065]

hahaha same!

[@larry-naylor]

I love this story, it just shows how a creature can come back from the brink.

[@maxg8926]

Man, I'm not exaggerating, your channel is the best for adventurous people. Man, can't figure out why only 34k subscribers. Really, often greatness is not understood by masses. I just hope you continue making the videos! Thank you)

[@drwatsonyt]

Love these videos! Keep them coming, great work!

[@atlasobscura]

Thanks so much Derek Watson! That is really so nice to hear!

[@asaturn]

thumbs up for walking sausage party. I was about to make the joke.

[@atlasobscura]

+Andrew Saturn Immature jokes are my preferred medium :)

[@planetjones]

This channel is great. Keep it up!

[@atlasobscura]

Christopher Jones Thank you for the kind words! So glad that you are enjoying them!

[@Wulfslove]

I know I'm kind of late but I think Cuddle Bug would be an appropriate and adorable nickname. In my family we use it to mean someone, usually a kid, who is super affectionate.

[@atlasobscura]

+SoManyModsSoLittleTime I think that is a lovely and very hospitable choice!

[@jjstratford]

That is fucking awesome!!! Life will find a way if it’s given a fighting chance! I am strangely euphoric for these little creatures and their tenacity for clinging to a tenuous existence under a single bush in the middle of the ocean! Good on ya, little buggers! 🙌🏻

[@DanielAppleton-lr9eq]

It's living on a giant boulder with few natural predators. They're going to thrive.

[@boasa]

This channel is a hidden gem

[@crin28]

My boyfriend and I were told about the website, bought the huge world atlas ... and now a channel! YES! So cool. Thank you, from the perpetually curious. :)

[@christiangasior4244]

Thank you, skinny Russell Crowe

[@KircherSociety]

+Christian Gasior I have only ever been called "fat Russell Crowe." This means more to me than you can ever know, ha!

[@christiangasior4244]

Dylan Thuras lol you aren't fat at all.

[@mcgillbot]

He reminds me a bit of Bill Hader. In a good way!

[@merlythecosplaydog7976]

:) I just love how happy you sound talking about the walking sausages

[@MarkAStephan]

One of my favorite channels. Dylan you really nail the commentary :)

[@atlasobscura]

Thanks so much Mark Stephan that makes my day!

[@lacunakardia]

love this channel! keep it up! c:

[@atlasobscura]

Thanks so much +lacunakardia!

[@masa5300]

No problem!

[@cliffray5958]

I was there before they died and, even though I'm living in Argentina now, I'm glad they came back because it is also as it was/is great to check them out, on a great day in your boat!!

[@atlasobscura]

Cliff Ray Were you there on Ball's Pyramid? When was this?

[@cliffray5958]

Atlas Obscura Yes we were on Ball's Pyramid about 30 years ago,...on a boat. We hiked up the side and checked them out. They were slow and didn't seem to bother if we were in their way or anything. However, some few years later there was a ship that had caught on fire. The ship was full of rats and THEY jumped ship and THEY ate the buds bugs.. ( but not all )

[@texaslonestarrider]

Love the video!

[@julianaylor4351]

Just shows how resilient nature can be.

[@TheGolfdaily]

Great Video!! 👍👍

[@flyoverstatecreative]

A good name would be something like "Bigus Nopus" Great video though! I really enjoy watching these :)

[@Noktastrigo]

I know I"m late to the game, but "The Lord Howe Walking Tree Sausage" has a nice ring to it.

[@manukenkun]

I remember reading about these a while back- that island is like something a pterodactyl would be seen flying over!

[@romeshsrivastava2474]

Great video. You have only 2K subscribers! Channels like these deserve more promotion than they are getting.

[@Dutch1954]

Fantastic story...and I'm creeped out by most insects. But that's irrelevant, what's important is they were saved

[@babalon7778]

I like these! My favorite local bugs are mosquito hawks, they actually let me pet them.

[@boopoint]

Hmph! A sausage fest on Balls Pyramid!

[@karkussthesupreme5454]

boopoint nice

[@timothyrandall6067]

WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL!

[@atlasobscura]

+Timothy Randall Thanks Timothy!

[@catsadilla324]

I saw some at the Melbourne Zoo. They are tremendous!

[@nickdamjanovic5065]

Ok, the guy doing this vid is adorable hahah. Love your enthusiasm about the subject!

[@pawsmcgraws916]

this guy tokes for sure!

[@katesisco]

The deratting of islands has proved exceedingly hard to accomplish. An experiment down Aussie way had the last rat not only avoid the food trap but commit himself to the ocean where one supposed he headed in the right direction for company.

[@atlasobscura]

Kathleen Sisco That is really interesting! Yeah I can only imagine trying to rid an entire island of one of the world's great sneaky survivors. Meanwhile the stick insects are huge, slow, and SO tasty!

[@jordanmarcotte9456]

Thanks for spreading knowledge! Subscribed :)

[@atlasobscura]

+Jay Blezink Thanks!

[@Deeplycloseted435]

Contrary to the opinions of humans, declaration of species extinction has no bearing on whether or not a species is actually extinct.

[@tishamanda36]

CHUCKLES Its really nice!

[@XXDEADGOATXX]

good video buddy... i love nature....

[@atlasobscura]

Thanks Patrick, me too.

[@penfloyd]

Amazing survival......Greetings from Phillip Island Victoria Australia

[@Loyaltymancer]

CoD Ghosts Extinction mode brought me here. Was not disappointed.

[@l.forster2301]

Mahogany Spooner. Interesting story.

[@arpitkhanna3039]

Great to hear

[@johnwagner4776]

Might've been HP Lovecraft's inspiration for the island of R'lyeh in The Call of Cthulhu

[@wayne2816wayne]

Wow very interesting. I love nature/science!!!

[@keikoh4727]

you make informative nice videos..keep it up!!

[@philiplindsay225]

At the instructions of NSW Premier , Neville Wran , I was a member of the first reconnaissance team of 7 led by Dr John Disney ( Ornithologist) of Australian Museum , and included Dr John Pickard ( Ecologist National Herbarium) in 1975 to study the environment of the Woodhens on Lord Howe Island. We traversed the entire Island and could only find 18 remaining birds which we weighed measured and banded. Pickard and myself also climbed the almost inaccesible Mt Lidgbird where we did find a few Woodhens and also Balls Pyramid ( seeking Phasmids, stick insects which we did not find ). In the summation of the report to save the Woodhen it mentioned that the rat population had to be exterminated. I am pleased that after 45 years , this has finally been accomplished and the Woodhen & Phasmid population has increased substantially . Congratulations to all those involved

[@lennyray42]

Walking Weiner is what I would have named it…

[@C-Here]

I love that the male sleeps holding the female... 😍🥰

[@hjdhbcfjjb]

But wait, in the illustration of the lord howe island stick insect, you can clearly see why it's called a "tree lobster" or a "walking sausage" based on coloring, etc., yet the balls pyramid stick insect looks very different, such as, not being red. Has someone proven that these aren't actually two different species of stick insects?

[@Lancaster300]

Cool programme. You can clearly see Balls Pyramid from Lord Howe Island which is totally idyllic by the way. Lord Howe is Paradise on Earth, so let the stick insects go back home. Totally sensible.

[@atlasobscura]

Lancaster300 It's weird to feel jealous of stick insects. And yet.

[@HomerSimpsonCreeptacular]

It should be called, "Brown Stick"

[@talal8572]

I think satan would be a great name

[@Azteca111BuildersIncLosAngeles]

Great videos---How about Lord Howe Spoon Stick Insect

[@atlasobscura]

Thanks! Totally! Maybe "the spooning stick" or "the cuddle bug" ha!

[@adventure-cowboy]

Hahahaha this is to funny :) I love this story and the island, I wonder if it's hard to find. I dub thee Julius Stickarailius!

[@israelalpizar]

One Bush on Balls Pyramid Saved the Sausage party

[@valeriancmw4975]

I vote we call them scare sticks

[@atlasobscura]

+Rissa Wilson Solid suggestion! Also very Halloweeny. Wait...why isn't someone making chocolate versions of these!?

[@rbeforme]

This was less about Ball's Island and more about the insect. Not really what I was looking for, but okay.

[@Tommy-gk6bh]

I like this

[@boopoint]

That one bush saved the insect. Luckily there were no drunk drivers around!

[@jakezg3016]

I thought Ball's pyramid was uninhabited. I'd be very surprised to see someone live there.

[@ellikasan]

Do the Palawan, Underground River.

[@Levottomat01]

Yeah, been some hits and misses. Mainly the misses come from the muppets from the LHIB. Like throwing out the display case they had the Phasmids in at the museum, which still had leaves and twigs in it. Anyway, a responsible individual saw this at the dump, had a closer look and saw that it still had a large number of live adults and eggs in it. Said person collected the live insects and eggs, made a home for them and let them keep living in his yard. The LHIB found out and got officers to remove the insects from his property and are currently involved in legal proceedings with him. The LHIB. If something is being done right, well or efficiently, it's not being done by the bureaucratically bloated, common sense lacking, pocket stuffing leaches, of the LHIB.

[@rajivmurkejee7498]

Even for stick insects I find playing some Barry White generally does the trick

[@karli4694]

Was this a video about balls pyramid or stick insect?

[@oddforestcritter]

How about: "Lord Howe & Ball's giant walking tree sausage with incestuous tendencies and a dislike of rats"

[@nunyabidnis4332]

due to their sleeping habits i think they should be renamed the Snuggle Bug

[@prorobloxplayer6981]

I would call that a Grassroach (Grasshopper and a Cockroach together)

[@InfiniteRhombus]

so they all lived under that same tiny bush, wouldn't there have been loads of dead ones too though? i guess the wind could have blown them away or something

[@TheCctripp]

So when they cuddle are they a Spoonful of Sausage?

[@lubagnati577]

I now have nightmares for the rest of my life

[@1.4142]

Never remind me of that cursed movie "sausage party" ever again.

[@prashantpmt]

Did the invaders survived after their food became extinct?

[@JTA1961]

Stick it where the sun don't shine ♨😎♨

[@mrlmmo1712]

Love how ignorant we are. "Oh, it's extinct" then "back from the dead"?! It's always been there!! It never died, we just called them out for the count. Explains humanity perfectly

[@rosiemarsili265]

interessante !

[@infidelcastro5129]

I'd call it the NOPUS NOPUS :)

[@karkussthesupreme5454]

Call it the Walking Turd

[@mroberts453]

Also know as Godzillas fin.

[@randomgirll3123]

chub beatle... that is my nick name for them...

[@clchawaii09]

Wouldn’t they be more safe on Ball’s Pyramid? They were eaten to extinction on Lord Howe Island.

[@moeuramo]

So this solves the food crisis…

[@haraya]

When he said “Lord Howe,” I actually thought.. “Wait, what?” “Lord, how?” Were the people who first found these insects asking God how He created them? But then I went back 10 seconds to go through the video again and realized how stupid I was.

[@patriciabristow-johnson5951]

I wonder if the insects are edible for humans

[@billh1471]

24 km, not 11 km.

[@joshuadaglish1159]

*Tasman sea not Pacific ocean

[@leighfranks]

Interesting but hastily compiled with some basically incorrect statements about Balls Pyramid. It’s a fascinating place alright and there are quite a few other videos and short docs that are better researched. Thanks for posting though.

[@johnwright291]

How fascinating. In breeding be dammed.

[@micpotato8158]

Surely they will be eaten by the rats on lord Howe island again when they are reintroduced there....unless rats have been eliminated from lord Howe island?

[@joyhall2736]

Australian men are AMERICAN men with accents. O_o

[@dheffley1]

WHY WHY WHYYYYY!!!

[@kittyokat13]

Yuck bug is a good name for it. LOL What purpose is there to bring these things back from extinction? re-introducing it to an area may not be a good idea. Invasive species issues come to mind.

[@dthuras]

Kitty O'Kat It is being introduced back to its native habitat on Lord Howe Island, so it wouldn't be considered invasive, but rather a natural (if missing for 80 or so years) part of the ecosystem.

[@kittyokat13]

Dylan Thuras After of 80 years of it not being there at all, it IS an invasive species if they put it back , especially in large numbers. They don't know what it will do to any of the local fauna that has evolved in it's absence. It may very well decimate whole populations of plants or other wild life. Only time will tell.

[@adstow]

+Kitty O'Kat Have you been to Lord Howe? The place is really well preserved - so much so that the NSW Government only permits a limited number of humans to be on Lord Howe at any given time. There are practically no cars on the island and the flora/fauna portfolio has only seen change in the last 100 odd years thanks to human intervention. The insect will be just fine provided the rats are completely exterminated - they themselves a dramatically destructive introduced species.

[@ti1286]

Why

[@sushilbarua8862]

Bermuda triangle

[@flexman70]

I can feel how heavy his teeth are.

[@jacelt7353]

okay who is here from the octonauts?

[@rahmspinat]

Rattus Rattus dude. There's 2 "T".

[@atlasobscura]

+volvoxmusix Mhmm... so there is...

[@rahmspinat]

+Atlas Obscura I just thought I let you know. You get a lot of things right, but that stood out. Cool video though.

[@richardjones1777]

Nickname: finger creeper

[@ericsilberstein667]

We need to stop messing with nature.

[@margaretaddinsell5300]

Them damn rats should be eliminated, we have plenty of them all over the world anyway but not the rare insects. A commendation medal to all those dedicated entomologists.

[@23Scadu]

So they went to Ball's, dug around in the bush, and found it crawling with weiners? Sounds like a good time.

[@genesish.672]

This (somehow) reminds me of Azkaban

[@emomuzz5883]

I bet they taste GR8 with tobasco!

[@HairyGay]

He’s hot