I just hate extinction...

The Great Auk




Dating back to ancient man, Auks were finally clubbed to death over just a few years. They were large slow birds numbering in the millions. Fisherman used them for meat and bait. They had good feathers for dressy hats.

The Auks were tall, slow, 5 lb. flightless birds living on the northeast coast of North America. They swam effortlessly and nested on the bare ground,with their one egg.
The last pair were killed protecting their nest in 1844.
Why?
Because they were weird and that was scary.

We've still got some really good animals, but barely:
Sawfish.











Javan Rinocerous












Hopefully the biologists will find a way to keep them hanging around.

We always had pets around. Always.
Never were we without an animal or two. We even kept wild animals, which is now taboo. But, we got to watch baby birds grow up, jays, quail, ducks. A baby deer, chipmunks. Dad brought home a few fish that stuck around for a while. Even a baby octopus...spraying his ink in the bucket of sea water, furious at his predicament.

I couldn't get enough of the animals in our back yard and at the beach. Nor at the zoo or aquarium. Even animals at the neighbors'. A cat that purred as loud as a train. A huge furry St. Bernard. An aviary of parakeets. The common lizards that escaped from their coffee can was a downer, I must say. Reptiles scared me. A long, polished, cream and black striped king snake caused me to jump straight into the air! I found safety on the swing and watched his slow progress.

A voracious reader at 13, I read Earnest Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known, with its numerous, lush illustrations by the author. It had been my father's book, handed down to my brother, handed down to me. Even those many varied, chapters didn't fill my desire for animal stories.















But at 13 I read a book that fascinated and shocked me by Errol Fuller, The Great Auk. Finishing, I sobbed.

As a young adult I read Never Cry Wolf, by Farley Mowat. Exposing the ridiculous claim by Canada that agressive wolves were slaughtering the caribou; though how on earth wolves could use chainsaws to saw off the antlers mystified. Bought a record of humpback whale songs, playing it endlessly. And another with wolf howls. Read books about whales, ravens, pet sparrows, lions, elephants, dogs.

I can't get enough.

Extinction sucks.

.....