The Room of Endangered and Extinct Species
 Grande galerie de l'évolution-Espèces menacées ou disparues by Wikimedia Commons
Entering La Salle des Espèces Menacées et des Espèces Disparues can either fill the mind with despair for the past or hope for the future upon seeing the hundreds of glass display cases filled with extinct and endangered animals and plants. Upon entry, pupils will adjust to the barely lit gallery. Goosebumps will form on the forearms at the low temperature. And a sense of doom will fill the heart at the beating of an old golden clock once owned by Marie Antoinette that signifies time running out for so many of Earth's species.
Many of the animals on display were hunted to extinction for their skins, antlers, feathers, or other distinguishing features. The quagga, a zebra that only had stripes on the front half of its body, was kept as a circus performance until the turn of the twentieth century. The Tasmanian Tiger was not actually a tiger, but was the largest meat eating marsupial until its extinction in 1936. The Schomburgk’s Deer is believed to have gone extinct in 1938 after being hunted for its exquisitely shaped antlers. The museum reminds us of the fragility of life and our responsibility to keep the cords of existence from being frayed or cut entirely. |
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