Nature finds a way/rev XX

 The Pinatubo volcano mouse is faring better than ever. Photo: © Danny Balete, Field Museum

Nature finds a way, always. As proof, this little guy seen above, is really doing well even though his volcanic home decided to erupt and do away with his world big time back in 1991.

A huge cloud of volcanic ash and gas rises above Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, on June 12, 1991. Three days later, the volcano exploded in the second-largest volcanic eruption on Earth in this century.

The eruption laid waste to the area, and it might have seemed impossible that a tiny mouse population could have survived.

On the contrary, it appears the mice took the disaster in stride. Balete found more of the species following Pinatubo’s eruption than had ever been found before it. It’s possible, Rickart said, that the mice prefer the ruined-but-regrowing landscape around the mountain to the dense, old-growth forest that preceded the eruption, and which will grow back in future centuries, if given the chance. The team’s survey, for which most of the fieldwork was done in 2012, also noted the return of 16 species besides the mouse, including large mammals like wild pig and deer, suggesting that the biodiversity of the montane forest is on its way back to its former vigor. Among the detected species, the once-rare Pinatubo volcano mouse is the most abundant.

Repopulcation of existing or evolved life always happens as seen by the aftermath of the great extinctions earth has experienced over a billion years. Once we're gone, earth will rejuvenate just as she always has done since the beginning of time.