Extinction Obituaries

Extinction Obituaries

Collection of illustrations for The Guardian, ink on paper / digital painting

"The last po’ouli died in an unusual nest. Too weak to perch, the brownish-greyish songbird rested in a small towel twisted into a ring. He was the last of his species, the last in fact of an entire group of finches, and occurred nowhere on Earth outside his native Hawaii."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/04/extinction-obituary-hawaiian-poouli-bird-aoe

"The last christmas island forest skink was named Gump. She lived in a spacious cage filled with rocks, soil, logs and a ready supply of fresh invertebrate food in the island’s national park. She wasn’t particularly active, but then again it’s impossible to know what goes on in the mind of a skink."

"That year – 1996 – marked the last year a Chiriquí harlequin frog was ever seen, anywhere in the world. It vanished so suddenly that any last-ditch attempts to save it via captive breeding were impossible."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/05/chiriqui-harlequin-frogs-waving-extinct-aoe

"Those questions may well go unanswered for ever: in 2015, the Bramble Cay melomys became the first mammal to go extinct directly because of human-caused climate breakdown."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/01/extinction-obituary-bramble-cay-melomys-climate-change-aoe

"Yet in recent years 15 of them have been declared extinct, victims of mismanaged fish farming efforts that accidentally introduced predatory fish into their home. In all likelihood, these invaders will continue to menace the native carp until none of them are left."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/29/15-carp-species-extinct-philippines-aoe