Joe Rogan Experience #1403 - Forrest Galante

Galante’s rediscovery of the Fernandina Island tortoise and the yellow caiman shows that once an “extinct” species is found, funding, research, and protection efforts surge, because conservationists now have a tangible target instead of a historical footnote.

Maintaining populations of rediscovered species or dangerous predators requires local scientists, long-term monitoring, genetic work, and navigating hunting pressure, politics, and community needs—not just proving the animal exists.

Stories about thylacines, giant ground sloths, or orang pendek attract attention because people crave mystery; while most reports are noise, the interest can fuel real expeditions and occasionally uncover misclassified or remnant populations.

Feral pigs across North America and axis deer in Lanai illustrate how a handful of introduced animals can explode into tens of thousands, devastate vegetation and native fauna, yet become culturally or economically valued as food—complicating eradication efforts.

Examples include orcas specializing on salmon and then starving when runs collapse, great white sharks shifting ranges with warmer waters, wolves learning to target livestock or hunters’ kills, and crocodiles patterning human behavior at riverbanks.