Their range became expanded when their huge flocks needed to expand in search of forage and larger nesting grounds for such large numbers within flocks. While their range was centered in their historic nesting territories (New England, west across the southern Great Lakes, south through the Mississippi River and east along the Mason-Dixon line to the Atlantic Ocean). Since prehistoric times, North America had been home to the species, particularly eastern North America. However, the telling of the story of the Passenger Pigeon can serve as a reminder that humans are directly or indirectly responsible for most, if not all, modern extinctions. ![]() By the time the public, and the scientific community at large, realized that the birds faced extinction – it was already too late to save the species. It is also important to recognize that the extinction of this American species is a story filled with horrific methods of killing, cruelty beyond belief in many cases, wanton and controlled violence, greed, and a public that did not believe the species could not survive the genocide committed against it. However, important distinctions should be noted and this article will introduce the readers to some of them. It only took about one century for the Dodo population to crash from their highest numbers to none at all.Ĭertain similarities parallel the story of North America’s Passenger Pigeon. Only fragments of bones and sketches remain. While the demise of the Dodo has been well documented, no complete specimens were preserved. (Sailors were tired of fish!) By 1861, the last Dodo bird was killed. Dodos, which were larger than our Wild Turkeys, weighed 40-50 pounds and provided the human population with a protein source when little else was commonly available. The Dutch became the first human settlers on the island and used it first as a stopover for their spice-trade ships and later as a penal colony. However, the numbers of these flightless birds were limited as they only occupied the relatively small island of Mauritius located in the Indian Ocean east of the larger island of Madagascar. ![]() ![]() ![]() The extinction of the Dodo, in the late 17th century, stirred up controversy within the scientific community and alerted the general public that human behavior caused their demise. How is it that the Passenger Pigeon, representing about 40% of all the living mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds of North America and estimated to have a population of about five billion, could disappear in the wild within a few short decades? They existed in such abundance that everyone, even ornithologists of the time, seriously doubted the possibility of their permanent disappearance. While it’s true that this species, extinct since around the beginning of the twentieth century, was the most numerous of all animals in North America for thousands of years and until after the Civil War, most people and even naturalists of the time, were absolutely dumbfounded and in disbelief by their seemingly sudden extinction. No one born in the twentieth century, and alive today, has ever seen a Passenger Pigeon in the wild, or in captivity, Male_Passenger_Pigeonr that matter. Male Passenger Pigeon by Tim Hough (Own work) , THE DEMISE OF THE PASSENGER PIGEON LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD (Part One) By Jon FriedmanĪll thinking people now realize that man alone was responsible for the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon so that further discussion of this phase of the subject is unnecessary.
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