Human greed is a catastrophic thing for the world. It results in pollution and destruction of the environment, and the loss of many, many amazing creatures. One such example is the Caribbean Monk Seal, a docile creature that lived around the Caribbean islands. These animals were hunted by visitors to the island, often for their fur and oil. The species was discovered in 1494, and was gone by 1952. This sad creature isn’t often talked of, and has only had one figure made of it by the ever amazing Yowie. Let’s take a look……
As with any Yowie model, it’s quite small, measuring a mere 2.2″ long and 1″ high, so only a few lines would match as the animal measured 8 foot long. The pose is quite nice, pushed up, as if looking around. It actually has some poseability, with a little wiggle to the tail and flippers, and significantly more in the head, able to swivel and look around. Really nice. The colouring is a mix of grey and a beige underbelly, likely based on black and white photos of live specimens taken not long before extinction. Works quite well here.
Accuracy is on point here, including the claws on the flippers, the head shape and the skin and fat that resembled the hood of a monk (hence the name). Not much to say beyond that, all good.
The Caribbean Monk Seal is a sad tale of human avarice that is not talked about often, and I feel it should be. It may be because it looks like many other seals that more models don’t exist, but this is a nice one to have, so I have no qualms recommending it. It is long discontinued, so eBay is the best bet to find it, and I do think you should.
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I would also like to see a ‘recently extinct’ category on this blog. It would be even nicer if we didn’t need that category, but…
Although the belonging to “prehistoric” is debatable, thanks for sharing and pointing out where greed leads us.
My pleasure! Always think of extinct rather than prehistoric with this one, with ATB being extant, but at least there are some reviews that bridge the gap.
Good review. I sometimes wonder if we should create a tag for “recently extinct.” It would be interesting to see precisely how many recently extinct animal reviews are on the blog and how diverse they are.
I’d be interested in that honestly. Worth doing, I reckon.
anything that became extinct in the 1950s is not prehistoric and would be better suited for the ATB 😀
Trust me, when I start running out of models, a lot of these will start to come over!