There are parts of our living world that are in such great abundance that it is difficult to imagine without it. Consumables such as air and water could fall in this category; but how about living creatures. How about the American Robin, the most common bird in North America. Do you think it could ever vanish and go extinct? Probably not but this is exactly what happened to the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) 100 years ago. Once the most numerous bird in our hemisphere it became extinct within 100 years of human intervention and it may be the only species in which the exact time of extinction is known.
The Passenger Pigeon once had flocks so large that it would darken the sky for hours as they passed. It comprised 40% of all birds that existed in the 1800′s. The nesting colonies covered as large as 850 square miles of forest. A bird population that has no comparibles, it is hard to fathom these large quantities today. Many factors contributed to the demise of the Passenger Pigeon which included: Hunting for it’s food, using it as fertilizer, shooting for sport, habitat destruction and disease. Many creative and cruel methods were used to kill the bird as it began to harm valuable crops when agriculture came to the frontier.
The last Passenger Pigeons to exist in the wild were at Babcock Wisconsin 1899 and Pike County Ohio where it was eliminated on March 24, 1900. Martha, who was held in captivity at the Cincinati Zoo died at 1:00 P.M. on September 1st 1914. At that time it joined the ranks of many others living creatures to become only an American memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon Wikipedia
http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/passpig.htm The Smithsonian
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