Poc Duck (Podilymbus Podiceps)
Maybe it is a name most of the people in the world haven’t and will never get to hear. This beautiful kind of duck became extinct a long time before a lot of us were even born.
It inhabited one of the biggest lakes in Guatemala – a country in Central America . – It’s biology and natural history was studied in the 60’s.
It used to be 20 to 25 inches tall, dark brown plumage with white sidings; down its chest it was gray with white spots, and a neck that changed its color depending on the season, dark brown in the spring and white in the winter. It also had a rare black stripe around its peak.
When reproducing, they used to have 4 to 5 eggs and both parents used to take care of the chicks. They used to feed from crabs.
This species started to diminish in numbers due to the increase in the fishing and tourism. Different kinds of fishes were artificially introduced into their habitat to boost the catch of the fishermen but they didn’t realize that they were creating another competitor that would take the ducks’ way to feed and survive.
Also the ducks started dying as a result of being trapped in the fishing nets and killed by boats.
In 1966, the Ecologist Anne LaBastille started a campaign to save the duck from extinction but her efforts were in vain. Her natural reserve wasn’t enough to counteract the damage we did to their environment and finally in the year 2004 after a study made by the UICN with the sponsorship of BirdLife International, the bird was officially considered extinct.
It is an animal like a lot other that I will never get to meet or even watch on TV. It is sad to think about all we’ve lost and continue losing day after day. I can’t stop thinking about the number of species our children will never get to see or even hear from.
History is all we have left, and we have to learn from it to ensure not only the survival of the wild life but also ours and this planet’s. Thank you Mrs. LaBastille for trying to fight against human nature and I really hope that the future generations don’t look back and hate who we are and what we represented to earth and their future.
I’ll keep posting more of what we’ve lost as a plea for forgiveness to the countless lives of the animals that have fainted in history and in the name of all mankind all I can is, “I’m sorry, we didn’t care”.
