Only 200 years ago, Passenger Pigeons numbered in the billions. They were perhaps the most populous bird ever to inhabit the Earth. One nesting area in Wisconsin alone reportedly covered 850 square miles with an estimated 136 million birds.
Unfortunately for Passenger Pigeons, they lived in a part of America where Americans also wanted to live. The forests where they would eat and roost were cut down. Farm crops became a substitute food supply, which made Passenger Pigeons a locust-like threat to farmers. Professional exterminators were hired to slaughter the birds. Since Passenger Pigeons only lived in huge flocks, they were easy to kill in staggering numbers. In 1878, for example, a flock of Passenger Pigeons in Petoskey, Michigan, were shot and clubbed to death at a rate of 50,000 birds a day, every day, for nearly five months.
This slaughterhouse efficiency couldn't last, and it didn't. By 1900 the billions of wild Passenger Pigeons had been reduced to one last survivor -- and it was shotgunned by a 14-year-old Ohio farm boy who saw it eating his corn.
That left only a handful of Passenger Pigeons in zoos. The last one to go was "Martha" -- named for Martha Washington -- who fell off of her perch and died on September 1, 1914, at the advanced age of 29.
However, Martha may live again, or at least her kind may using museum-specimen DNA. The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback Project is to bring the passenger pigeon all the way back using the genome of the band-tailed pigeon and state-of-the-art genomic technology.
There is a growing controversy about De-Extinction. Some feel it's unnatural, a place where man should not go. Others believe it's man's responsibility to bring back what man has destroyed.
Martha - Passenger Pigeon Memorial Hut Cincinnati Ohio
Passenger Pigeon Comeback Revive Restore
Unfortunately for Passenger Pigeons, they lived in a part of America where Americans also wanted to live. The forests where they would eat and roost were cut down. Farm crops became a substitute food supply, which made Passenger Pigeons a locust-like threat to farmers. Professional exterminators were hired to slaughter the birds. Since Passenger Pigeons only lived in huge flocks, they were easy to kill in staggering numbers. In 1878, for example, a flock of Passenger Pigeons in Petoskey, Michigan, were shot and clubbed to death at a rate of 50,000 birds a day, every day, for nearly five months.
This slaughterhouse efficiency couldn't last, and it didn't. By 1900 the billions of wild Passenger Pigeons had been reduced to one last survivor -- and it was shotgunned by a 14-year-old Ohio farm boy who saw it eating his corn.
That left only a handful of Passenger Pigeons in zoos. The last one to go was "Martha" -- named for Martha Washington -- who fell off of her perch and died on September 1, 1914, at the advanced age of 29.
However, Martha may live again, or at least her kind may using museum-specimen DNA. The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback Project is to bring the passenger pigeon all the way back using the genome of the band-tailed pigeon and state-of-the-art genomic technology.
There is a growing controversy about De-Extinction. Some feel it's unnatural, a place where man should not go. Others believe it's man's responsibility to bring back what man has destroyed.
Martha - Passenger Pigeon Memorial Hut Cincinnati Ohio
Passenger Pigeon Comeback Revive Restore
