EXTINCTION FACTS IN A STORY/POEM PART 2
When animals live
without danger from hunting or spears
They tend to lose
inhibition and are free from any fears.
The Falkland Island
Fox was such a case
Because they had no
fear they didn’t last long when they met the human race.
Darwin visited the
islands and predicted it wouldn’t last long
And it was hunted to
extinction after towns were started by Captain John Strong
From 1692 until their
demise in 1876
People were scared of
them and killed these friendly canines with meat and sticks.
The next creature
tale is a slight mystery
As there are still
reports of it living since it was last seen in a zoo for a few years after 1933
The Tasmanian tiger
was first reported by a French sailor in 1792
But what it was
exactly the sailor didn’t have a clue
It was striped like a
tiger and looked like a wolf with a huge jaw
But it was really a
pouched marsupial predator and not a dog at all
Farmers started
tilling the soil and creating their farms
And blamed the
tasmanian tiger when any sheep were harmed.
The Tasmanian
government offered to pay a bounty cash reward
And the total
reported thylacines exterminated was 2,184
The last known
thylacine was captured and put in to the Hobart Zoo
They named him
Benjamin when he came in 1933
He died just three
years later, the last Tasmanian tiger anyone would ever see
The most tragic part
of the thylacines extermination tale
Is that the government
passed a law to protect them 59 days AFTER the death of the last male
When America was
first discovered passenger pigeons numbered a billion times five
But said to say by on
September 2, 1914 no more were left alive
What happened to the
most numerous bird the world has ever known?
This question could
have been answered by telegraph or telephone
In the 1800’s many
immigrants came to America to strike it rich
But while they were
getting settled here their diet took a switch
The poorest people
would go out pigeon hunting and shoot part of the 5 mile wide flock
A pair of pigeons
sold at market for two pennies which shortened its timely clock
From 1800 – 1870 no
one noticed much pigeonary decline
They thought this
endless food supply was still doing fine
But their numbers
began to plummet by 1890
Then the once
uncountable flocks grew increasingly tiny
Still the poor needed
food and pigeons still flew by
The quagga is a front
end zebra with the back end of a horse
This magnificient
animal, too died off of course
They were discovered
in South Africa in 1778 it was written
Many herds and
abundant numbers left animal hunters smitten
But found to be quiet
satisfying for meat and for skin
Just a little over a
century later they wouldn’t be seen again
On August 12, 1883
the last quagga took its last curtain call
But this may not be
the end of them cause science may answer the call
It seems the quagga
is actually the same animal as the Zebra of the plains
The quagga’s back end
stripes just came out as light brown stains
Scientists are
carefully selecting zebras with striping less
And trying to breed a
quagga back and on January 20, 2005 “Henry” may have been a success
Additional Resources:
(more posts to come about the Quagga)
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| Is it really extinct? We'll discuss the Quagga in the next post |
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