99 years ago today the passenger pigeon succumbed to extinction when its last surviving individual died a few feet from where this photograph was taken, in Cincinnati Zoo. A few decades earlier there had been billions of this bird flying around the forests of eastern North America. And so next year will be the centenary…
Tag: passenger pigeon
‘Standing up for nature’ goes to America
My main task between now and the end of September is to finish writing a book ‘on’ the passenger pigeon for Bloomsbury – and for me and for you! 1 September 2014 will mark the centenary of the extinction of this bird – probably the most numerous bird in the world a few decades before…
Waging war
Today is Remembrance Sunday and this year it falls on the 11th day of the 11th month. The Second World War was the deadliest conflict in human history but I was surprised to learn that the First World War was ‘only’ the sixth deadliest. Are you wearing a poppy? It’s interesting that we use a…
Saturday 7
I’ll tell you what day it is. On this day, 98 years ago, at 1pm local time, 6pm (I think) UK time, there was a dull thud in Cincinnati. The last passenger pigeon in the world, called Martha by her keepers in Cincinnati Zoo, had died and fallen off her perch. It was the end…
Are all Americans stupid?
I am, of course, only referring to American bird species. I ask the question because of a conversation I had back at the Bird Fair but first let me tell you about the Carolina parakeet. The Carolina parakeet was a native north American parrot that was widespread in the east of the USA when the…