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Animal Observation Essay

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1. What have the museum curators identified as the central theme of this exhibit? Explain how curators understand this topic, its causes, and its consequences. How is this particular interpretation reflected in the exhibit? (Give specific examples). [10 points, 1 paragraph] The central theme of the exhibit focuses on a period of time that they call the Anthropocene, a proposed epoch that is defined by humanity’s effects on the environment. The curators take a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic by looking to geology, biology, and climate science to draw stronger conclusions. They also ask for visitor feedback in several parts of the exhibit to gauge a social level of the impacts. Specifically, the exhibit displays the preserved bodies of several different extinct animals and explains how humans were directly responsible for their …show more content…

The information was believable because you had direct examples of human intervention staring back at you as you read about how humans were in some way responsible for their decline and demise. 3. What was the most striking item/object/text in this exhibit to you? Why? [10 points, 1 paragraph] The most striking object in the exhibit was the Stephens Island wren, a small flightless songbird that lived on a tiny island in New Zealand. It was discovered the same year that it was declared extinct, because of a pregnant cat that was brought to the island by a human living in the lighthouse on the island. Seeing this unique little songbird wiped out totally by accident really drove the point home that much of human impact on the environment is totally accidental. 4. What is a potential “hole” or omission in this exhibit? This is a broad question – it can be a particular item or object; a type of evidence; an audience; a theme or topic, etc. [15 points, 2-3

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