Extinct bird rediscovered, then eaten

This rare Worcester's buttonquai, thought by scientists to be extinct, was recently photographed in the Philippines by a TV crew and then sold for food at a market. Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman summarizes various news reports on the matter. From Cryptomundo:

Found only on the island of Luzon, Worcester’s buttonquail was known solely through drawings based on dated museum specimens collected several decades ago...

Wild Bird Club of the Philippines President Michael Lu asked a question that naturally came to my mind: “What if this was the last of its species?”

He told the Agence France-Press news agency that it’s unfortunate that the locals aren’t more conscious of the threatened wildlife around them.

"Extinct Bird Found, Photographed & Then Eaten"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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daverunsfromfire

I think this is some xenophobic thing… like the fisherman that caught the bizarre alien-looking fish, videotaped it, and immediately ate it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to eat a newly discovered species, but this seems more about conquering than consumption. At least try to teach it tricks, and kill it in frustration. Or, you know, think and do the right thing.
gmoke

Howard Waldrop should sue for copyright infringement on his story, “The Ugly Chickens.”

http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/waldrop/waldrop1.html
Anonymous

Eaten for food or to make one dingus erect?
dainel

#25 Anonymous said … if it was the very last of its species, the species was doomed anyway.

Well, maybe it was the 2nd last of the species. Half of a breeding pair.

Anyway, if the bird was really eaten, it didn’t happen like “Hey, that’s a really rare bird that’s supposed to be extinct. The first one ever photographed. Let’s eat it.” It probably happened more like this …

A TV crew goes to film some other stuff. Somebody runs up, “hey come look at this weird bird they just caught”. Everyone gathers around. They looked at it. Arnel snaps a few photos. Then they go back to their job. The guy who caught the bird sold it at the local market, as he does with every other bird he catches.

A week later, back at the studio, Arnel is showing the photos to his friend, the bird expert. “That’s a really rare bird. It’s supposed to be extinct you know. Where is it now?”

Howie (the boss) hears about it and decides to do a short segment around the story.
mdh

@Brainspore –

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, I’ll bet they wanted a Unicorn chaser.
Keppoch

Maybe the bird is related to some of the poisonous birds from Papua New Guinea like the Hooded Pitohui. That would be some ironic vengeance.
Brainspore

I bet that woolly mammoth was absolutely succulent.
MarlboroTestMonkey7

In the city we call this evolution leftovers.
SednaBoo

spellcheck please. Especially the 4th word in the article.
stickinsecthunter

According to the local newspaper the bird was not eaten. It ended up in some sanctuary.
Anonymous

If it was the very last of its species, the species was doomed anyway.
Teller

Severe nitpick.
The proper Onionized headline: Extinct Bird Rediscovered, Eaten.
Anonymous

Reminds me of this one, from The Onion

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_delicious_species_discovered
O3

They should have traded him a Canada goose for it. Contact the Man in the Boat!
Fart Sandwich

Well, at least we know it was put to good use. I hope it made a good sandwich. An extinct sandwich.
merreborn

#11: “Leave it to mankind to, upon finding something that we’ve probably never seen before, anywhere else, sell it to eat instead of saying, hey, maybe this is something rare I should protect.”

Any other predator would have eaten it on the spot.

Mankind is the only species, of which certain members would recognize its scarcity and try to protect it.

So, yeah, mankind is probably mostly not much better than the rest of the predators out there, but hey, at least a few of us that short-sighted.
absimiliard

I am so jealous. That little bird looks incredibly tasty .. ..

-abs dreams of eating a species into extinction, why couldn’t this have been him? Why?!?! KHAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!elves!!!!
Marcel

Which faith would you believe to have awaited the animal if the TV crew had in fact decided to buy it and hand it over to the ‘experts’?
demidan

“Tastes like burning”
Blaine

Marcel:

They probably would have drawn some of its blood, sequenced its DNA and learned more about the evolutionary process. Y’know. Science.

What do you think, they’d dissect it? Do you know how little you can learn that way? Compared to modern technology it’s the difference between actually reading a book and just picking it up to see how heavy it is.
Rick.

I wonder if Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick were involved.
Brainspore

According to the local newspaper the bird was not eaten. It ended up in some sanctuary.

The kitchen is my sanctuary, too.
ROSSINDETROIT

Lets hope this means it’s not really extinct but maybe recovering. ‘Extinct’ Coelacanths were being caught regularly by fisherman even though they were thought to be extinct.
ROSSINDETROIT

Obligatory joke:

What’s it taste like?

Oh, kind of a Bald Eagle sort of flavor.
Brainspore

If that species didn’t want to go extinct then it shouldn’t have been so delicious.
nanuq

Is it possible for a species to become re-extinct?
Daemon

Wonder if the person who sold it realizes they could probably have gotten thousands of times as much money for keeping it alive.
BastardNamban

Leave it to mankind to, upon finding something that we’ve probably never seen before, anywhere else, sell it to eat instead of saying, hey, maybe this is something rare I should protect.

You’d think a guy getting hold of one of these would definitely wonder what it was, and then trying to sell it, ask others. After all, what kind of sign did he put out when no one in the market knew what it was? “Weird bird for sale- eat it, it’s probably good!”