We finally calculated the second half of 2010 and it added up to 426 EURO we just donated for species protection projects of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS). This sum resulted from sales of 142 products (shirts, hoodies, bags etc.), for which we donated 3 EURO each.

The FZS works on a variety of species protection projects at worldwide hotspots of biodiversity, hence supporting large numbers of endangered species. On our project page xtinct.info you can inform yourself on the projects we support with our donations and customers can choose themselves which project they would like to support with their order.

Sandra Barth has created a new line of motives that keep you well dressed when its 30°C in the shade.

Sandra's XTINCT Designs

She has portrayed the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger (xtinct 1936), the Quagga (xtinct 1883) and the Hawaii Mamo (xtinct 1899) in a particular creative and detail rich way. „ I immediately liked the concept, to combine T-Shirt design and fashion with a species conservation campaign. You produce something that people want to buy, not only because it looks good, but because there is a message behind it. And the fund-raising puts the message directly into action.”

For Sandra it was important that her design “kept the object alive, but showed the dead animal, to gain a macabre character, that is not obvious at first sight. But if you take a closer look, you can see that the Tasmanian tiger’s eyes or the Hawaiian honeycreeper’s beak is composed of worms. They eat the carrion and represent the process of disintegration.”
These worms are also meant to irritate the onlooker and to spark interest for the theme and to discover the “extinct since…” information. In her third design, the Quagga, a zebra sub-species that became extinct in Africa at the beginning of the 20th century, Sandra has converted the typical black stripes into worms.

If you are curious now to take a closer look at Sandra’s designs, you can visit our t-shirt-shop, where you can not only order T-shirts in different colours and sizes but also learn more about her extinct species of choice.

thanks for translating this article to Caroline Deimel

One of the most familiar extinct species is the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine (lat. Thylacinus cynocephalus – sometimes Tasmanian Wolf). Until a hundred years ago it was found on Tasmania, an island south of Australia. It had a wolf-like body but its back was marked with conspicuous 13-19 black stripes, hence its vernicular name “Tasmanian tiger”. Although closely resembling mammalian predators like the wolf, it was a marsupial and it reared its offspring in a pouch. It was one of only two species of marsupials where both males and females possess pouches. The Tasmanian tiger was active at night and hunted primarily for small kangaroos and birds. It could open its mouth to an impressive 120°.

Thylacine - Illustration by John Gould

Historically, thylacines were found in Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. But already the Aborigines put pressure on these populations

When we discussed which extinct species to be portraying this year and decided one of them would be the “lens fly” (from german “Linsenfliege”, lat. Thyreophora cynophila) there was one thing we hadn’t in mind then: to see a living specimen this year. Now both things happened. We can present the first XTINCT-Design on the lens fly and the species was surprisingly just rediscovered in spain. Sometimes things are too good not to be true.

Actually the lens fly was considered to have existed only in germany, france and austria. And after its discovery (Panzer, 1798) it dissappeared completely within 50 years.