Tale of a Ducky Picture

I remember seeing a book at the local bookstore last week called The Curse of the Labrador Duck. I took note of it since it sounded like a book I would be interested in reading (it’s about one person’s quest to learn more about an extinct species of duck) and I also noted the the cover of said duck against a red background.

The Book’s Cover

I paused and wondered why it looked familiar, and a figured it must be the same specimen of a Labrador Duck I remember seeing at the Redpath Museum in Montreal the last there a year ago. I remember taking a pic and posting it to Wikimedia Commons.

So today I was given the offer of a Google Wave account, and I asked the sender to pass it to my captmondo email address on there.

I haven’t checked that address in months, but I had reason to check it today.

And there in my inbox is an email from a contact at HarperCollins publishers requesting permission to use the WikiMedia pic for their book “The Curse of the Labrador Duck”, sent during the summer.

Yes, the are using the same image I shot and posted to Wikipedia for the book’s cover.

The Original Picture I Took

Some Context: The Rest of the Duck

I responded to the publisher, who has apparently already given me credit on the book jacket and now that they know where I am, are going to send me a copy of the book as well.

So now I can add a book cover credit along with that for National Geographic and for a couple of other book illustrations.

Also in my inbox was a similar email from a zoologist from the Netherlands who studies Homotherium (a type of extinct sabre-toothed cat) asking me for more info of a shot I took of a specimen while visiting the dino museum in Beijing last year. Apparently he thinks it is a specimen that has gone unpublished in Western literature on this type of cat, and is very interested in seeing any other pics I may have of it.

These really made my day.