Back at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020 - but before it became clear quite how bad things were about to get, and that therefore the thread was a doomed proposition - I started a challenge thread distinct from the four yearly zoo-based challenges (UK, Europe, North America, World) and which I intended to have no fixed end-point. The purpose was simple - to see how many recently-extinct species Zoochatters could observe and (if possible) photograph within museums worldwide. Given the pandemic, it is perhaps unsurprising that after an initial flurry of interest it very rapidly petered out.
In the intervening years, I've been wanting to try getting the thread going again - but each year I haven't had the mental energy to do so when the new year actually rolled along
however, I am making a concerted effort to improve my mental health and energy by getting back into long-form writing and thread management, and as such have chosen to view a thread posted a day or two on the subject of extinct species in museums as a good omen.
Considering the fact that I think people are a lot likelier to want to participate in a new thread rather than a bumped and revived thread, I'm starting from scratch - but to make things easier all round, I'll cross-post the important bits from the original thread below as quotations:
As noted, this is intended to be a fairly casual challenge with no real endpoint - and with the general hope that it will end up creating a de-facto "Photographic Guide to Recently Extinct Species". As such, although proof by photographs isn't required per the usual challenge ruleset, being able to upload and post photographs of your sightings will be very much desirable!
(As a sidenote to pique people's interest, I have another project coming up which I hope will serve a similar purpose; a revival - fully sanctioned by @CGSwans , the progenitor of the concept - of the ZooChat Cup
which should hopefully get going in the next few days once I've worked out a few final odds and ends!)
In the intervening years, I've been wanting to try getting the thread going again - but each year I haven't had the mental energy to do so when the new year actually rolled along
however, I am making a concerted effort to improve my mental health and energy by getting back into long-form writing and thread management, and as such have chosen to view a thread posted a day or two on the subject of extinct species in museums as a good omen.Considering the fact that I think people are a lot likelier to want to participate in a new thread rather than a bumped and revived thread, I'm starting from scratch - but to make things easier all round, I'll cross-post the important bits from the original thread below as quotations:
So.... what are the two segments?
- Most representatives of extinct taxa seen in museums and other such collections BARRING GREAT AUK.
- Most taxidermy mounts of Great Auk seen.
For the first sub-challenge, the format I am looking for in terms of posts is as follows:
1) Species name - Genus species (subspecies if relevant) - Location seen - Material seen
1) Quagga - Equus quagga quagga - Scottish National Museum - Taxidermy Mount
Duplicate taxa *are* allowed - we're aiming to promote where things are kept and displayed after all - but note that the remains have to be genuine and not artistic representations (as is the case with all "stuffed dodos") or plaster casts (as is the case with the dodo head and foot currently on-display in Oxford). The remains have to be seen on-display from a public area to count for the challenge, but any remains seen behind the scenes in museum tours or so forth can still be mentioned as an appendix to your totals. Otherwise, a few general rules:
1) Proof via photographs is not required.
2) Taxa which have been lost since c.1500 only; this means that the only moa taxon accepted is the Upland Moa, which is generally thought to have held on until around this time. No elephant birds or giant lemurs etc
3) Species whose continued existence is a matter of uncertainty will be allowed on a case-by-case basis; I'll say straight up that we will be counting Thylacine, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Pink-headed Duck and Eskimo Curlew, for instance.
4) Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along.
The second sub-challenge (prompted by the fact that Fuller's The Great Auk contains a complete listing of all known surviving Great Auk material) will be similar, but limited to that species only, and taxidermy mounts alone. As many of the extant specimens are not on public display, and the location of a few is now unknown, for this one we will permit specimens which anyone has been lucky enough to see behind the scenes.
As noted, this is intended to be a fairly casual challenge with no real endpoint - and with the general hope that it will end up creating a de-facto "Photographic Guide to Recently Extinct Species". As such, although proof by photographs isn't required per the usual challenge ruleset, being able to upload and post photographs of your sightings will be very much desirable!
(As a sidenote to pique people's interest, I have another project coming up which I hope will serve a similar purpose; a revival - fully sanctioned by @CGSwans , the progenitor of the concept - of the ZooChat Cup
which should hopefully get going in the next few days once I've worked out a few final odds and ends!)
