The Last of Its Kind

In 1835, Gus, a young zoologist, is sent to Iceland by The Natural History Museum of Lille to study North Atlantic fauna. It is there he witnesses the bloody massacre of a colony of great auks. Amidst the violence, the curious researcher pulls a single wounded bird from the water, unaware that he has recovered what will eventually be the last of its kind. Gus brings the initially suspicious animal home with him to study it. Instead of a research specimen, he discovers the beauty and majesty of his new companion, who he names Prosp, and the pair eventually develop an endearing mutual affection. Over the next fifteen years, Gus comes to realize that he is the close observer of something inconceivable: the extinction of a species. From there, a singular preoccupation is born, and the inevitable fate of his feathered friend eclipses everything else around him.