‘On 1 September 1914, between midday and 1 pm, in the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Cincinnati, Ohio, a pigeon breathed her last, and with her died her species.
The pigeon was known as Martha, and the species was the Passenger Pigeon. Amongst all extinctions, this example remains unusual in two respects: the precision with which the timing is known and the overwhelming abundance of the species just a few decades earlier – for, just a few decades before Martha died, the Passenger Pigeon was the commonest bird on Earth.‘
Those are the first two paragraphs of my book on the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon (published 2014 – it seems a long time ago).
I think of the Passenger Pigeon often, but always on this day of the year.
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What a terrible tragedy that we lost the passenger pigeon. Hopefully we just might get it back some time in the future when we progress further on DNA manipulation.
Just shows everyone what the shooters that kill our wildlife for fun can do. They have no regard at all for nature and wildlife.. They just wish to satisfy there own very peculiar ego.
Sad, but necessary commemoration. The tragedy of species lost through human failings is really gripping and could do with a lot more publicising. There was a fantastic series for schools in the mid 1990s narrated by Greta Scacchi called ‘Lost Animals’. It would spend about ten minutes per program on species as diverse as Steller’s sea cow and the giant Hawaiian looper moth and gave them equal importance. There was even one, Gilbert’s Potoroo, which was rediscovered not long after the series aired which was obviously wonderful. We could do with another series like it which would now sadly include the Yangtze dolphin (baiji) and po’ouli. I’ve always missed bringing it up before, but remarkably there’s another story from north America that’s an even more extreme example of the journey from super abundance to extinction than the passenger pigeon’s – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust
Lost Animals of the 20th Century?
They’re available on You Tube.
Here’s a couple of links.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VCkpoEX_8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmafKvtutIw&list=PL5N3mzIPMhEF1wNN0cQvqb3Opah7g5zmE
Yes I found it thanks, my memory played me false there’s no Steller’s sea cow, but they have the New Zealand grayling. So much of my life is of the pre internet era it’s still not an automatic action for me to think of chasing things up on it, what an incredible tool it is. Was a pleasure hearing the theme tune again and Ms Scacchi’s beautiful narration.
Mark,
Could you please repost the video of a girl with the “Corner Laughers” singing a lament about the death of Martha.
Regards,
John
Observant fans of the series “Outlander”, could be forgiven for thinking there is a large flock
extant, somewhere in North Carolina.