The number of times I’ve basically seen this exact same thing happen in history is crazy. It’ll be something like “Well ole Bill Jesterbong discovered the Gilded Anusbangle in August of 1827 on the island of Nebraska. Naturally, he built a hide in a tall fir tree and camped in it for 3 weeks straight shooting and killing all 1382 Gilded Anusbangles to see if their hide could be useful or if they were tasty. Turns out they were not. The Gilded Anusbangle is now extinct.”
I’m struggling to remember the details, but I recall one account where somebody found a very rare, very endangered bird with its nest, strangled the bird and smashed the eggs within the nest, effectively just for shits and giggles. I’ll edit and update this if I can find the details.
Edit: The Great Auk. Wasn’t killed for shits and giggles, but they were desired for their down to the point the European populations were hunted into extinction. From Wikipedia:
The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens.[56][c]
Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson, the men who had killed the last birds, were interviewed by great auk specialist John Wolley,[59] and Sigurður described the act as follows:
The rocks were covered with blackbirds [guillemots] and there were the Geirfugles … They walked slowly. Jón Brandsson crept up with his arms open. The bird that Jón got went into a corner but [mine] was going to the edge of the cliff. It walked like a man … but moved its feet quickly. [I] caught it close to the edge – a precipice many fathoms deep. Its wings lay close to the sides – not hanging out. I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him.[8]: 82–83
No that’s the one made extinct by feral cats, but that’s a different episode of Tom Scott’s Citation Needed than the one where I learned about the bird I was thinking of. Completely forgot that’s where I’d heard about it!
The bird I had in mind is the Great Auk, which was mentioned in a separate episode of Citation Needed lol
From Wikipedia: "The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens.[56][c]
Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson, the men who had killed the last birds, were interviewed by great auk specialist John Wolley,[59] and Sigurður described the act as follows:
The rocks were covered with blackbirds [guillemots] and there were the Geirfugles ... They walked slowly. Jón Brandsson crept up with his arms open. The bird that Jón got went into a corner but [mine] was going to the edge of the cliff. It walked like a man ... but moved its feet quickly. [I] caught it close to the edge – a precipice many fathoms deep. Its wings lay close to the sides – not hanging out. I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him.[8]: 82–83
The number of times I’ve basically seen this exact same thing happen in history is crazy. It’ll be something like “Well ole Bill Jesterbong discovered the Gilded Anusbangle in August of 1827 on the island of Nebraska. Naturally, he built a hide in a tall fir tree and camped in it for 3 weeks straight shooting and killing all 1382 Gilded Anusbangles to see if their hide could be useful or if they were tasty. Turns out they were not. The Gilded Anusbangle is now extinct.”
I’m struggling to remember the details, but I recall one account where somebody found a very rare, very endangered bird with its nest, strangled the bird and smashed the eggs within the nest, effectively just for shits and giggles. I’ll edit and update this if I can find the details.
Edit: The Great Auk. Wasn’t killed for shits and giggles, but they were desired for their down to the point the European populations were hunted into extinction. From Wikipedia:
The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens.[56][c]
Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson, the men who had killed the last birds, were interviewed by great auk specialist John Wolley,[59] and Sigurður described the act as follows:
The rocks were covered with blackbirds [guillemots] and there were the Geirfugles … They walked slowly. Jón Brandsson crept up with his arms open. The bird that Jón got went into a corner but [mine] was going to the edge of the cliff. It walked like a man … but moved its feet quickly. [I] caught it close to the edge – a precipice many fathoms deep. Its wings lay close to the sides – not hanging out. I took him by the neck and he flapped his wings. He made no cry. I strangled him.[8]: 82–83
Was it the Stephens Island Wren?
No that’s the one made extinct by feral cats, but that’s a different episode of Tom Scott’s Citation Needed than the one where I learned about the bird I was thinking of. Completely forgot that’s where I’d heard about it!
The bird I had in mind is the Great Auk, which was mentioned in a separate episode of Citation Needed lol
From Wikipedia: "The last pair, found incubating an egg, was killed there on 3 June 1844, on request from a merchant who wanted specimens.[56][c]
Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson, the men who had killed the last birds, were interviewed by great auk specialist John Wolley,[59] and Sigurður described the act as follows:
Lmao, I knew it was citation needed, just got the wrong bird!