HackerNews Readings: The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

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mplonNov 25, 2020

"The Feather Thief" by Kirk Wallace Johnson is the book that piece is about. It's a much more thrilling and fascinating read than you might expect. Absolutely worth a read/listen!

mauvehausonAug 3, 2020

The lengths wealthy people go to outdo one another are just absurd. I heard a segment on the radio about the Atlantic salmon fly-tying community, who tie based on historic patterns that used ever rarer bird feathers.

Modern tiers are faced with a choice now that the birds that were rare then have become even rarer (or extinct): Tie with something else, or find a source of authentic feathers.

The segment was an interview with the author of The Feather Thief[0], who investigated the lengths one "enterprising" tier went to to acquire authentic feathers, destroying the historical scientific record for whole species in the process.

It seems insane that a fad of rich men from a long time ago becomes the obsession of a subculture of the larger fly tying community and that the result of that is a hole in the scientific record. It's enough to make you wish that folks would get obsessed with growing rare pineapples instead.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44153387-the-feather-thi...