When the world's heaviest insect goes missing, don't bother searching — just leave the porch light on and it'll wander back eventually.

'The future is bright': breeding programme brings world's heaviest insect back from the brink

Scientists at the Bristol Zoo Project announced in 2025 that a captive breeding programme has pulled the Lord Howe Island stick insect, a flightless species that grows up to 15 centimetres and weighs more than a golf ball, back from the brink. The insect was declared extinct in 1960 after rats wiped it out on its namesake island, but a tiny population was found clinging to a single bush on Ball's Pyramid in 2001. The zoo now keeps around 100 of the insects and has begun sharing eggs with other institutions to build a wider insurance population.

Source: 'The future is bright': breeding programme brings world's heaviest insect back from the brink — r/UpliftingNews

A daily AI-made news meme from Jester · Oct 5, 2026.