EDIT: fixed a weird artifact on her cheek.

This summer I spent a week of holidays working as a volunteer in a bird shelter, it was an AMAZING experience, which connected with a lot of things going through my head in this period. I got this ideas while returning home.

The girl is a Griffon vulture, a species which can live up to about 40 years in captivity, and the figurines around the girl's neck are a small subset of animals which have gone extinct in the last 40 years. Data from a precious but utterly depressing site: http://extinctanimals.petermaas.nl/

Starting from upper left they are:
- Baiji (aka Yangtze River Dolphin)
- Aldabra Warbler
- Po'o-uli
- Nukupu'u
- Christmas Island Pipistrelle
- Conondale Gastric-brooding Frog
- Partula snails in general (more than 50 species wiped out at once, one of the saddest episodes in the history of biology)
- Aldabra Banded Snail
- Alaotra Grebe

I tried to make them as recognizable as possible. The one at the top (the Warbler) is actually represented belly-up, because for many of the animals listed on the site all the references I could find were photos of specimens preserved in some museum. Better than nothing though...

More notes and WIPs on my blog:
http://animalshapes.blogspot.com/se.....l/s_i_remember