The last quagga to be photographed was in a London zoo in 1870, and no one knows precisely when the species became extinct, because no one knew precisely that it was a species different from the zebra. Only when DNA science was applied in recent times did the difference become clear.
For my savannah biome poem I have created a conversation between an ostrich and a giraffe in an imaginary London wild animal park.
the ostrich reached her head up
the giraffe tilted his down
“have you heard about the quagga?
asked the ostrich with a frown
“an only-semi-stripey zebra,
who lived the other side of town?”
“indeed,” the giraffe nodded,
“so I have heard,
but why do you ask?
she wasn’t a bird”
“no, but what happened to her could happen to us:
she went quite extinct with nary a fuss,
nobody noticed, and nobody cared,
no one, not even Greenpeace was there!”
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14 comments:
Hi Kay, love the story! I hope you're all well and having a great Easter weekend. (((hugs))) Jo
All very true, Kay. One of the greatest challenges of the 21st century will be to guard our wildlife from eradication around the world. I just hope I do not live to see the rhino, tiger, snow leopard and countless more become extinct in my lifetime.
I like this one. And I have never heard of a quagga before. Funny name.
...nary a fuss.
Yes, as much as I do feel sorry for animals in zoo's many ARE put there these days because for some reason they can't survive in the wild. Right?
I like to think with "sacrificing" a few from the wild, we can learn about them and help them become stronger, habitat maintained...
Cute poem with a HUGE message.
Poem is cute; I recently heard on NPR that some scientists have actually figured out how to bring back extinct animals from DNA samples and they may try to do it. Perhaps we will see that animal again someday. (they can't do dinosaurs ala Jurassic Park because there is no existing DNA..or at least that's what I understood.)
Kay!! I love your take and the fact that you employed all three of the animals that I featured as examples plus the added and important bonus of informing your reader...you balanced it very delicately with humor and a poignnat punch in the end! Well done. Thank you for writing TF!!
Good one, Kay. It is sad to watch species going extinct. Love your cool poem!
So strange. Very interesting! k
hi Kay... your approach towards the theme is indeed an unique one and made me aware of the difference between zebra and quagga...
happy to follow your blog...
Cheers :)
going extinct...sad to see those animals disappear nary a fuss ~ Happy Easter Kay ~
Yes, things can go extinct in the blink of an eye...even now with all the focus on such things. Great take, Kay.
Extinction comes and we barely wink at it. Thanks for letting the animals speak...may we listen.
Shoot now, think later. The story of human interaction with nature, unfortunately.
Well Done...I so hope the animals are heard ;D We need to fight for their rights!
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