A conservation group recently found one of the world's rarest mushrooms in the mountains of Chile, four decades after the fungus was last sighted, Good News Network reported.
The big puma mushroom — an unremarkable, normal-sized, grayish-brown mushroom — is the only fungus on Re:wild's "25 Most Wanted List" of lost species. To find it, an expedition team from the Fungi Foundation in Chile had to hike into the mountains on the exact anniversary of the mushroom's first sighting, retracing the steps of Chilean mycologist Norberto Garrido, who discovered the fungus in 1988.
"It's possible that the reproductive parts of the big puma fungus — the mushroom — are only fleetingly visible above the soil on the same few days each year, which made the timing of the expedition a crucial factor," said mycologist Claudia Bustamante, a member of the expedition team.
The expedition team also brought a documentary crew along with them. The footage was edited into a 10-minute short film that is available for viewing on YouTube.
"We knew it was going to be hard to find the big puma fungus and that the chances of finding the mushrooms were low, considering their colors and how they blend with the fallen leaves," Daniela Torres, the leader of the expedition, said.
"It was truly a unique moment when we managed to be in the right place at the right time to see the mushrooms. Understanding the biodiversity that exists and interacts within a specific area helps us comprehend its behavior and its potential to adapt to ongoing changes and underlying threats."
Though many species around the world have been driven to extinction due to human activities — ranging from pollution to habitat loss to overhunting and fishing — some of these species are not completely gone, and conservation groups are putting resources into confirming that they still exist to save them from complete extinction.
Other recent success stories include an expedition to Madagascar that turned up 21 examples of species that had been considered lost to science, including a 10-inch-long millipede that hadn't been seen in 126 years. A Chiretolpis erubescens, an incredibly rare type of moth with a distinct hairy orange appearance, was also recently found in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu — the first sighting in 132 years.
These types of stories remind us that, although many species have suffered due to human activities, it is not too late to do the work of saving and protecting as many of them as we can.
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