Extinct! The disappearance of the carrier pigeon, and many more
Scientists think a quarter of the total bird population in the United States in the early 1800s was passenger pigeons.
But then something changed: 110 years ago Sunday, Martha – the very last passenger pigeon on the planet – died at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Going ...
Extinction is nothing new, and it’s been going on a lot longer than man has been messing up things (hello, dinosaurs?). However, humanity’s track record isn’t very good at caring for animals that tend to be in short supply.
A partial listing of known extinct species ...
Source: WikiMedia Commons
1662
DODO
What: Flightless bird
Where: Mauritius
Why: Loss of habitat and food source
1840s
GREAT AUK
What: Flightless bird
Where: Rocky islands in the North Atlantic
Why: Overhunting
1883
QUAGGA
What: A type of zebra
Where: South Africa
Why: Overhunting
1936
TASMANIAN TIGER
What: Cat
Where: Australia and Tasmania
Why: Killed because of threat to livestock
1940s
BUBALHARTEBEEST
What: A type of antelope
Where: North Africa
Why: Overhunting
1952
CARIBBEAN MONK SEAL
What: Seal
Where: Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico
Why: Overhunting
1974
ROUND ISLAND BURROWING BOA
What: Snake
Where: Round Island, near Mauritius
Why: Killed off by nonnative species
1976
JAVAN TIGER
What: Cat
Where: Java, Indonesia
Why: Loss of habitat to development
1977
MADEIRAN LARGE WHITE
What: Butterfly
Where: Portuguese islands
Why: Loss of habitat to development
1979
DUTCH ALCON BLUE BUTTERFLY
What: Butterfly
Where: Netherlands
Why: Loss of habitat to development
1981
TECOPA PUPFISH
What: Fish
Where: Mojave Desert hot springs
Why: Loss of habitat to development
1996
ZANZIBAR LEOPARD
What: Cat
Where: Tanzania, Africa
Why: Hunted by superstitious locals
2000
PYRENEAN IBEX
What: Wild goat
Where: Spain
Why: Overhunting
Going ...
A few creatures still on this mortal coil might not be for much longer ...
Source: WikiMedia Commons
2000
BLACK RHINOCEROS
Where: Spain
Why: Valued for alleged medicinal properties of their horns
How many are left: About 3,142
Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
LEATHERBACK TURTLE
Turtles grow up to 8 feet long and weigh a ton
Where: As far north as Alaska and as far south as South Africa
How many are left: Between 26,000-43,000
DAMA GAZELLE
Hunted by sportsmen with automatic weapons
Where: Chad, Niger and Mali
How many are left: About 300
SUMATRAN ORANGUTAN
Logging has destroyed their habitat
Where: Sumatra, Indonesia
How many are left: About 13,846
VAQUITA
This cetacean is easily snagged in fishing nets
Where: Gulf of California
How many are left: Fewer than 10
CROSS RIVER GORILLA
Once hunted for meat
Where: Nigeria and Cameroon
How many are left: 250 or fewer
GOLDEN-HEADED LANGUR
Hunted for traditional medicine, “monkey balm”
Where: Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
How many are left: 70 or fewer
BAIJI
Also known as the Chinese River Dolphin
Where: Yangtze River, China
How many are left: The last known Baijidied in 2002
Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Gone ...
At one time, passenger pigeons were quite common in North America. An estimated 3 billion to 5 billion inhabited the continent, mostly in the East and Midwest. The pigeons flocked in huge numbers, which made them easy to hunt.
Even an inexperienced marksman might find he could bring down a half-dozen pigeons with one blast of a shotgun. At one nesting site in Petoskey, Michigan, 50,000 birds were reportedly killed each day for more than five months.
Source: WikiMedia Commons
Conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote that in Columbus, Ohio, “a growing cloud” of passenger pigeons blotted out the sun. “Children screamed and ran for home. Women gathered their long skirts and hurried for the shelter of stores. Horses bolted.”
Passenger pigeons were valued for their use in bedding and pillows. One family in Chautauqua County, New York, reportedly killed 4,000 in a single day, just for their feathers.
But most importantly, pigeons were used for food: Humans found them tasty. After the Civil War, railroads increased the efficiency with which pigeons could be harvested and moved to market.
It wasn’t just the huge numbers of pigeons killed. Hunters also damaged the pigeons’ nesting grounds. Passenger pigeons will mate only in large numbers. As nesting grounds were cleared, the seemingly inexhaustible supply of pigeons began to drop.
In 1857, a bill proposed in the Ohio state Legislature sought protection for the passenger pigeon. A committee shot down the bill, declaring the “wonderfully prolific” bird needed no protection. In 1897, a similar bill in Michigan proposed a moratorium on passenger pigeons. It was too little, too late.
On March 24, 1900, a 14-year-old boy in Pike County, Ohio, shot and killed a passenger pigeon. It would be the last confirmed sighting of a passenger pigeon in the wild.
A professor at the University of Chicago attempted to breed a dozen or so captive passenger pigeons but with no luck. He sent one of his last pigeons, Martha, to the Cincinnati Zoo in 1902. She died there on Sept. 1, 1914.
Source: Smithsonian Institution
Martha was thought to be about 29 years old. Her body was mounted and put on display in the Smithsonian National Museumof Natural History in Washington, D.C.