A few nice extinct animal images I found:
Edmonton International Airport 2011-12
Image by Edmonton Public Schools
Katelyn
Spotted Owl and Ord’s Kangaroo Rat
Edmonton Christian NE
Grade 9
sharpie, dye, on muslin
In this piece of art, based on the spotted owl and the Ord’s kangaroo rat, I wanted to show through the text that it is slowly dying off, because their homes (trees) are getting cut down. As well, the text draws the viewer by asking, how would someone feel if their home was cut down for no reason and they would have nowhere to go? The pattern I chose to create some kind of value change, was on the chest of the bird, where it kind of looks like muscle tissue. I put that there because his feathers are coming in and giving a closing in/bundled up effect. As well, in the feathers I put dash like designs to create a fluffier appeal. I chose the colour combination for the background to make it look like it was an autumn forest, and the owl and the rat are crying out for help because winter is coming soon. They will have trouble finding homes to live in because people are cutting down the trees they live in. The owl is eating the rat to prepare for hibernation. I made this piece of artwork by first drawing the owl and the rat on newsprint then transferred it onto cloth with a sharpie marker. I used a variation of three fabric dyes in the background and sewed it onto a piece of construction paper, and incorporated a motif design in my stitching as well. I chose the spotted owl because I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for them. I put the rat in the owl’s claw because it would be something the owl would eat to survive. I feel strongly that we should all raise awareness for these animals who are slowly going extinct, because it is all God’s creation and it’s only right that they continue to live and take part of the earth.
July 2011 Specimen of the Month: Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth
Image by wagnerfreeinstitute
The specimen for July, 2011 is the Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) found in case #71. It was purchased in 1890 from American naturalist Henry A. Ward and came from Costa Rica. It was added to the collection as part of Joseph Leidy's new design for Wagner's natural history museum.
Sloths are found in Central and South America and are “arboreal” or tree-dwelling mammals. They are nocturnal and live most of their lives suspended upside down from tree limbs (even mating and giving birth in the canopy!). Their signature, hook-like claws are an adaptation that makes the sloth especially skilled at moving in trees but hinders their movement on the ground. The Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth is known to wobble its head and spit whenever opening its mouth.
Sloths are considered the slowest animals on earth, moving about ten feet per minute when on the ground. They sleep up to 20 hours a day with half the metabolic rate and a quarter of the muscle mass of other mammals similar in size. So slow are their movements that an algae can grow on their coats, giving them a greenish hue that helps to camouflage them in the treetops. Once on the ground they are extremely vulnerable to predators (mainly jaguars, eagles and humans) but they are surprisingly good at swimming. They are specialized “folivores” with a diet that consist almost entirely of buds, tender shoots and leaves from trees. In order to digest this hardy menu, sloths have developed large stomachs with many chambers that house a symbiotic bacteria that helps them digest cellulose.
There are two families of sloths alive today: Megalonychidae (two-toed sloths) and Bradypodidae (three-toed sloths). In addition to the taxidermied Hoffmann’s Sloth, the Wagner has the skeleton of a three-toed Sloth on display in the same case. Although these two types of sloths are very similar, their closest common ancestor died 35-40 million years ago, making them a remarkable example of convergent or parallel evolution. Despite the deforestation of their habitat, the majority of sloth populations are successful and healthy. Only the Maned Three-toed Sloth is considered endangered and the Pygmy Three-toed Sloth is listed as critically endangered. Two-toed sloths are distantly related to giant ground sloths that went extinct on the mainland of the Americas around 10,000 years ago.
