Extinction Awareness Day

The Great Auk was the “penguin of the north". This 30 inch flightless bird ranged along most of the north Atlantic, but its nesting areas made it vulnerable to hunters.  They were often herded in mass numbers by passing sailors for meat or for feathers for pillows. One of the last major breeding islands on Funk Island was destroyed in a volcanic eruption.   The last documented breeding pair was killed on Eldey Island off the southwest coast of Iceland on July 3, 1844.  The men who killed this pair reportedly crushed an egg in the process.   There may have been a few other sightings after this date, but July 3, 1844 is usually set as the Great Auk's extinction date. Additional Resources: *  http://www.birdorable.com/meet/great-auk/ *  http://www.lostbirdfilm.org/explore_greatauk *  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HU2l2Jmhu4   (film by David Min - junior reporter) *  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIL357oO_l4  (...

The dodo is probably the best known of the recently extinct animals, though much of its existence are somewhat of a mystery.  There are so many references to the dodo in pop culture which I thought fitting to add at the end of today's post.  Will Cuppy summed up cultural perception of the Dodo when he stated, "The Dodo never had a chance.  He seemed to be invented for the sole purpose of going extinct and that is all he was good for." The Dodo bird was a very unique bird, who wasn't adapted to predators.  The Dodo was a 3 foot tall, 50 pound flightless member of the pigeon family that lived east of Madagascar on the island of Mauritius.  The dodo was eaten for food, even though sailors didn’t like the taste.  The dodo was labeled as foolish, because it was curious and didn’t fear people.  It is reported that sailors could knock on trees in the forest and the dodos would come to investigate the new noise. The tambalacoque tree also known as th...

Although the "dodo tree" is not extinct, it had been thought to be highly at risk due to the loss of the Dodo bird.  It was thought by 1973 that only 13 tree remained, all over 300 years old.  It had been determined that there are probably a few hundred trees left today, but it's been hard to tell for sure. The seed of the Tambalacoque tree has a very thick shell.  It had been theorized that without the Dodo present the Tambalacoque seeds would not be able to germinate on their own. These seeds had been a favorite of the Dodo and once ingested could be transported and broken down, thus starting the next tambalacoque generation. They seem to have had a symbiotic relationship. Today wild turkeys are being fed Tambalacoque seeds to break down the hard shell and people are even scraping the dense coating off by hand in order to plant the next generation. It seems that the Tambalacoque tree will be able to stave off extinction without the Dodo there to help out, th...

The Steller’s Sea Cow was a 30 foot sea cow that used to inhabit most of the Northern Pacific Ocean,  but its range was severely diminished by the time it was first spotted.  Steller's Sea Cows weren't discovered until 1741 when Russian explorer Vitus Bering shipwrecked on the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea. Georg Steller was the naturalist with the expedition who named the Steller's Sea Cow, the Steller's Jay, the Steller's Sea Lion, and the Steller's Sea Eagle (he really liked his last name). The crew hunted the Steller's Sea Cows for food, oil, and skins.  Steller's company only ate what they needed to survive before they were able to repair their ship.  When they returned home, they  spread the word about where to find these huge, tasty, easy-to-catch behemoths.    Sea cow I made during an Eric Carle lesson with my kids Steller noted that they were not scared of people at all and always stayed close to shore eating seaweed. Stel...

The Heath Hen is an interesting creature and its story is one    of my personal favorites, so the next several posts will be devoted to it.  It was one of the first species to be protected by Americans, though for many reasons efforts failed (see tomorrow's timeline). The Heath Hen raises the question about what makes an animal unique and a species of its own.  Scientists ran DNA testing on preserved Heath Hens with conflicting results. There are 3 different results from the DNA testing. 1) It was its own distinct species. 2) It was a subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken. 3) It was a subspecies of the Lesser Prairie Chicken. Regardless, the Heath Hen was a chicken sized member of the grouse family that once thrived from Virginia to New Hampshire.  It was 17 inches long and about 2 pounds. They were were  probably even on the menu for the first Thanksgiving, not wild turkey.  In colonial times, t hey were a "poor man's food".  Serv...

Heath Hen Timeline * 1791 - New York passes the first American law to protect a species.  The law called for "the preservation of heath-hen and other game..." but New York citizens thought the law was designed to protect "heathens" (Native Americans) so the law was overlooked. * 1870 - no heath hens left on the main land, and 300 heath hens were moved to Martha's Island. * 1890 - there were only 120 - 200 left due to feral cats. * 1908 - there was a Heath Hen Reserve created * 1910 - the population rose to about 2,000 * 1916 - a fire broke out on Martha's Vineyard * 1920 - 600 left after an outbreak of poultry disease and a population rise in area hawks. * 1927 - 12 left, only two of those remaining were female. * December 8, 1932 - Booming Ben was the last of the heath hens * March 11, 1932 - the day that the heath hen went extinct   Here are some pictures I took while visiting the Natural History Museum in DC with my kids. ...

The Heath Hen was closely related to the Lesser and the Greater Prairie Chickens.  Because both of these species are still around today and in need of protection, I'm devoting Part 3 to their conservation.   Although when I was younger I'd never heard of the Heath Hen, I was fascinated by the Lesser Prairie Chicken and created the cartoon character Lester the Lesser Prairie Chicken.   The Greater Prairie Chicken is the largest of the prairie chicken species.  It is easily distinguished from the Lesser Prairie Chicken, because the greater prairie chicken has orange air sacs on its neck and the lesser prairie chickens have a reddish air sac.  The subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken, the Attwater's Prairie Chicken, is extremely endangered with only about 260 remaining, 100 of those living in the wild in the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge and the rest in breeding programs at the Houston Zoo in Texas and NASA's Johnson Space Center. Ad...