Accounts of e X tinct Species

Accounts of eXtinct Species

Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) (Rest in peace, Martha!)

Distribution the passenger pigeon lived in the eastern U.S. and was found from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico a short-distance migrant, birds from far northern climates wintered in the south

Description large pigeon with a long pointed tail gray upper, with tip of wings and tail black throat and breast rust-colored red-colored eyes females dull brown-colored, with black eyes

passenger pigeons placed their nests in trees, 8-50 ft. from the ground laid one to two eggs per clutch nested in colonies which sometimes occupied hundreds of square miles

passenger pigeons were once so numerous that when they migrated, it was estimated that more than a billion birds passed in flocks miles long which lasted for days as John James Audubon noted of the flocks “the air was literally filled with pigeons…” “the light of noonday was obscured as by eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow”

this bird was seemingly so overabundant that no one ever thought that there could possibly be a shortage of them both the eggs and the flesh were favored foods because the pigeons nested in huge colonies where food was plentiful, they were easy prey Wilson (1814) reported “Wagon loads of them are poured into market…and pigeons are the order of the day at breakfast, lunch, dinner, until the very name becomes sickening.”

rampant over-harvesting for both food and sport took place as the turn of the century approached, vast amounts of forested land were cleared, for timber, towns, railroads, and agriculture as the railroad systems expanded in the 1850’s, more and more birds could be easily shipped into the increasing city markets

as the turn of the century approached, vast amounts of forested land were cleared, for timber, towns, railroads, and agriculture enormous numbers of chestnut and oak trees, the main food source of the pigeons, were destroyed furthermore, as granivores, they were seen as an agricultural pest, and destroyed in large numbers by farmers

the negative synergistic whole of all these events took its toll on the passenger pigeon the last major pigeon nestings occurred near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in 1881 and in Wisconsin in 1882 small flocks and pairs continued to nest into the 1900’s, free from commercial persecution however, the passenger pigeon could not sustain itself at these drastically reduced numbers

the last legitimate record of a wild passenger pigeon was in 1900 in Ohio this bird was shot and its remains are in the Ohio State Museum in 1909, the Cinncinnati Zoological gardens had only 3 birds remaining two males and one female on 1September, 1914, the last passenger pigeon, “Martha”, died in the Cinncinnati Zoo

If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering. - Aldo Leopold, 1953

Accounts of e X tinct Species