THIS ain’t no lie: The Pinocchio lizard was thought to be extinct for 50
years, but has been rediscovered in the cloud forests of Ecuador.
After searching for the long-nosed animal for three years, a team of
photographers and researchers found the lizard recently in a stretch of
pristine cloud forest in the northwest part of the country, said
Alejandro Arteaga, a co-founder of the educational and ecotourism
company Tropical Herping, which conducted the search for the lizard.
Also called the Pinocchio anole (an anole is a type of lizard), the
animal is named after a certain dishonest wooden puppet and was first
discovered in 1953, Arteaga said. But wasn’t seen between the 1960s and
2005, when an ornithologist saw one crossing a road in the same remote
area in northwest Ecuador. This is only the third time scientists have
spotted it since 2005, Arteaga added.
