Behind closed doors at Liverpool's World Museum resides the last earthly remains of an exotic speckled bird.
The spotted green pigeon went extinct in the 1820s due to over-hunting and the introduction of invasive predators on its native islands in India and Southeast Asia. First mentioned in writing by English physician and bird expert John Latham in 1783, the only physical evidence the bird existed at all can be found right here in Liverpool.
It is locked in special environmentally-controlled conditions, away from the public eye. The one-of-a-kind specimen was first seen in the collections of British army officer Thomas Davies and the naturalist Joseph Banks, though its exact origins remain unclear.
