(think oil as well)Ĭlassification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Aves, Columbiformes, Columbidaeīirds are small to large, warm-blooded, egg-laying, feathered, bipedal vertebrates capable of powered flight (although some are secondarily flightless). The Lesson? Natural resources can run out. However, several other birds in this family, usually island species, have gone also extinct due to other human factors. The passenger pigeon is the only species in the pigeon/dove family driven to extinction by gun nerds. With the destruction of the nesting colonies, the species couldn’t make a comeback. Oddly, passenger pigeons couldn’t nest alone or in small colonies. Late 1800s hunters targeted the nesting colony areas. Tree branches were seen to break from the weight of all the perching birds. Single trees could have hundreds of nests. Passenger pigeons nested in huge colonies, occupying hundreds of square miles of forests. Flock density was so high that when two flocks flying in opposite directions collided, numerous stunned birds fell to the ground. Individual flocks were estimated to have contained more than three billion birds. Passenger pigeon flocks were famously huge - they darkened skies and took hours to fly by. It was driven to extinction by professional hunters (the birds were destined for food markets - American Indians also killed these birds as a source of food) and clear-cutting of forests. ![]() It is the only species whose extinction timing is very well known.Įctopistes migratorius occupied the central & eastern portions of temperate North America. The last known individual was a captive bird held at the Cincinnati Zoo. The species became extinct about 100 years ago. The passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, was at one time the # 1 most abundant bird in North America, and likely the # 1 most abundant bird on Earth. The story of the passenger pigeon is famous as an example of the idiotic destructive power of modern man ("Homo stupidus") & human overpopulation. Protecting endangered wildlife is part of Audubon’s Mission: “To conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.Description Ectopistes migratorius (passenger pigeon).jpgĮctopistes migratorius (Linnaeus, 1766) - passenger pigeon (extinct) (mount, public display, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Ilinois, USA). The 100th anniversary of the species’ disappearance reminds legislators and people everywhere of the importance of protecting endangered wildlife before it’s too late. The story of the Passenger Pigeon is a poignant reminder of the need for effective conservation. ![]() Ehrlich wrote that its extinction “illustrates a very important principle of conservation biology: it is not always necessary to kill the last pair of a species to force it to extinction.” As the flocks dwindled in size, populations decreased below the threshold necessary to propagate the species. Large flocks and communal breeding made the species highly vulnerable to hunting. The extinction of the Passenger Pigeon had two major causes: commercial exploitation of pigeon meat on a massive scale and loss of habitat. Lewis Cross: Passenger Pigeons in Flight, painted in 1937
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