[organicdude]

This makes me incredibly happy for some reason.

I lived in Taiwan for a year after I graduated college and I found their jungles to be difficult to navigate because of the mountainous terrain. It doesn't surprise me that they have been hiding out successfully for >10 years!

What a beautiful animal with cool patterns.

[MisterOctober]

Totally! The clouded leopard is one of my favorite big cats. That's two great pieces of "species persists" news in a week! A few days ago, it was the giant bee:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47311186

[Klathmon]

3!

https://mashable.com/article/fernandina-giant-tortoise-galap...

[larkeith]

What fantastic news!

> The tortoise is said to be in good health, but underweight. It is believed that she is about 100 years old.

I suppose it's easier to have relict populations survive without inbreeding issues when they've got century-plus lifespans. I'm glad they've relocated the tortoise to a breeding center - hopefully we'll be able to preserve them!

[MisterOctober]

Wunderbar! That makes my day, thanks for sharing. Every time I think of tortoises, the book "Classic Shell Scripting" with its African tent tortoise cover springs to mind.

[geowwy]

It gives me hope we might find a thylacine one day. There have been a number of unconfirmed sightings including videos and photographs.

[ForHackernews]

Really good article on that topic: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/02/the-obsessive-...

[beachy]

That would be fantastic, but I would be happy if someone else was to actually come across it in the bush rather than me.

[lsiebert]

This makes me happy too. Anytime anyone or anything we thought was dead is found alive, that's a cause for celebration.

[thelittleone]

Definitely. And in in the last two weeks, the worlds largest bee that was thought to be extinct was found again in Indonesia. Particularly good news given the global decline of many bee species. [1]

And a type of tortoise thought to be extinct was seen for the first time in 106 years. [2]

1.https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2019/02/21/Worlds-biggest-b...

2. https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/tortoise-thought-extinct-dis...

[topmonk]

Small pox! Yeaahhh!!

[Radim]

Beware! You entered the "cutesy animals, let's save the planet, everyone's cool man" territory with nuance, humour and wider perspective. People don't forgive that easily.

If you want to be fun at parties, you can also try this: "What do you mean, 'YOLO, do what your heart tells you, no matter what they say'? Does that also apply to rapists and murderers?"

[lsiebert]

I'll make an exception for infectious diseases... certainly getting rid of smallpox was, and eventually getting rid of HIV will be, a cause for celebration.