The Rodrigues parakeet’s last day: what one extinct bird tells us about the role of museums

By Jack Ashby, Assistant Director of the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, University of Cambridge

One day in August, 1875, a greyish-blue parrot was shot on a small island in the Indian Ocean near Mauritius. It was the last time a Rodrigues parakeet was known to be seen alive.

That bird was one of only two ever preserved. Exactly 150 years on, both rest under our care at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge, England. Aside from a few fossilised fragments, they represent the only physical evidence the species ever existed.

For many extinct animals, museums are now their last remaining habitat. Without…

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