Animal attraction for Twittering deer
A giant skeletal deer from a species that is now extinct has managed to attract more than 100 followers on Twitter, including many other creatures from around the world.
Among the 107 followers of Oisin (promounced O’sheen) the deer are:
Edith Bolling Wilson Museum’s cyber canary (thecybercanary).
The American Museum of Natural History’s whale (nathistorywhale).
Mel the parakeet (ilovecanaries).
American wirehair cat (jawsnclaws47).
Ball python at Fort Collins Museum and Discovery centre (slinkyworld).
St Agnes Museum’s turtle (stagnesturtle).
Oisin, who lives on display in the museum in Market Place in Warwick, entered the social networking world of the 21st century at the end of May with the launch of his very own Twitter account.
He spends his time tweeting about what is happening behind the scenes, as well as current and future museum events.
http://twitter.com/OisinTheDeer
His unusual name is the gaelic for ‘young deer’, and came about following a vote among Warwickshire County Council staff and visitors to the museum, with Oisin beating Dylan by just 9 votes from the hundreds cast.
Oisin can be seen standing proud in one of the windows of the county council museum. He’s the skeleton of an extinct male Irish Giant Deer, dug from a peat bog in the 19th century.
Creatures such as Oisin died out about 10,000 years ago (possibly due to climate change – spring seasons shortened meaning less time for long grass to grow and therefore they starved to death).
They measured up to 2.1m (7ft) at the shoulder with antlers measuring up to 3.6m (12ft) from tip to tip. Their remains are known from across Eurasia, but are best known from Irish peat bogs where many skeletons were unearthed during the nineteenth century.
For further information about Oisin or the Museum please contact Dr Jon Radley, Keeper of Geology, on 01926 418182.