Talk:Booming Ben

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by HurricaneZeta (talk) 20:35, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

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[[File:|140px|Statue of Booming Ben, created by Todd McGrain]]

Statue of Booming Ben, created by Todd McGrain

• ... that Booming Ben (pictured) was the last living heath hen, marking the first species biologist closely observed go extinct?

• Source: In the spring of 1929, only a single survivor returned to the blind that biologists had set up at the remaining heath hens’ mating ground at a local farm. Islanders nicknamed the remaining heath hen “Booming Ben” ... Booming Ben’s death marked the first time biologists had been able to watch firsthand as a species (or, technically, in this case, a subspecies) went extinct.

https://daily.jstor.org/last-heath-hen/

• • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Ebenezer Harcourt

Created by Significa liberdade (talk) and Manuelito2021consupadre (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 14 past nominations.

Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 17:41, 25 December 2025 (UTC).

• New enough (created yesterday), long enough (2261 b/370 w per WP:Prosesize), and verifiable enough. (Source in newsletter link: Gross, Alfred O. (1929). "The Heath Hen Census for 1929". The Wilson Bulletin. 41 (2): 67–71. Retrieved 2025-12-26 – via JSTOR. )

Hook-rewording suggestion: ALT 1a: "... that the death of heath hen Booming Ben (pictured) marked the first time biologists observed a species' extinction firsthand?" --Slgrandson (How's my egg-throwing coleslaw?) 16:01, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

That hook sounds good to me! I was curious about the best way to phrase it, so thanks! Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 18:24, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Last example death

Article doesn’t say someone saw the last one die, just the last sighting. The last passenger pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1916. Exact date is known. So we know exactly when it went extinct. So this is not the first species that we know exactly when it became extinct. Wis2fan (talk) 04:15, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

I agree. Although the statement is sourced, it is clearly false on multiple counts. First the heath hen was a subspecies, not a species. Second, there are numerous prior cases where biologists witnessed the extinction of a species (or subspecies) due to a specific last individual dying, including the passenger pigeon, the Quagga, and the Carolina parakeet. Nosferattus (talk) 19:35, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

I've corrected the sentence in the article, but the DYK hook still needs to be fixed. Nosferattus (talk) 19:42, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

I'll note that this is not my area of expertise. However, from my understanding, the big difference was that conservationists had been working to restore and protect the subspecies, with close observation beginning in 1908. As such, the subspecies was closely observed over two decades as it went extinct, which was distinct from previous extinctions. That said, it seems something something similiar occurred with the passenger pigeon, if not other species. Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 20:40, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

That may be the case, but that is neither what the article said nor what the DYK hook said. Do you have any suggestions for better wording? The previous wording in the article was His death marked the first documented instance in which conservationists witnessed the extinction of a species. Nosferattus (talk) 21:20, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

Do you think it aligns more closely with the original hook: that Booming Ben [...] was the last living heath hen, marking the first species biologist closely observed go extinct? Of course, this doesn't matter as much with the DYK hook, given it has less than an hour left at this point. The question would really be about how to appropriately phrase it for the article. I'm curious if there's something here, too, about the fact that it Booming Ben was in the wild versus in captivity, even though it was in a small area. Significa liberdade (she/her) (talk) 23:15, 7 February 2026 (UTC)