Editing Ball's Pyramid (section)

===''Dryococelus australis''===
Ball's Pyramid supports the last known wild population of the [[Dryococelus|Lord Howe Island stick insect]] (''Dryococelus australis'').<ref name="Krulwich">{{cite web |last=Krulwich |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Krulwich |date=29 February 2012 |title=Six Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway for 80 years |publisher=[[National Public Radio]] |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years |access-date=18 January 2016}}</ref>

Following the last sighting of the Lord Howe Island stick insect on Lord Howe Island in 1920, the species was presumed extinct. Evidence of continued survival on Ball's Pyramid was discovered during the 1964 climb when a dead specimen was found and photographed. Throughout the following years, several more dead specimens were discovered, but attempts to find live specimens were unsuccessful.<ref name="pinnacle">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Jim|year=2016|title=South Pacific Pinnacle, The exploration of Ball's Pyramid|publisher=Den Fenella press|isbn=978-0-9943872-0-2}}</ref>

In 2001, a team of [[Entomology|entomologists]] and conservationists landed on Ball's Pyramid to chart its flora and fauna. As they had hoped, they discovered a population of the Lord Howe Island stick insect living in an area of {{convert|6|by|30|m|-1}}, at a height of {{convert|100|m}} above the shoreline, under a single ''M. howeana'' shrub. The population was extremely small, with only 24 individuals. Two pairs were brought to mainland Australia, and new populations have been successfully bred<ref>{{cite web |last=Thomas |first=Abbie |date=14 February 2001 |title=Giant stick insect rediscovered |url=http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2001/02/14/245820.htm |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref> with the ultimate goal of reintroduction to Lord Howe Island.

In 2014, an unauthorised climbing team sighted live stick insects in an exposed position {{convert|65|m}} below the summit of Ball's Pyramid in a thicket of [[sedge]] plants, suggesting that the insect's range on Ball's Pyramid is more widespread than previously held, and that its food preferences are not limited to ''Melaleuca howeana''.<ref name="pinnacle"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Jim|year=2015|title=Balls Pyramid, Climbing the world's tallest sea stack|publisher=Dick Smith Adventure Pty Ltd.|isbn=978-0-646-94603-0}}</ref>