So, you might ask, why should we care? Because Martha was the very last of her kind, the last Passenger Pigeon on Earth.
September 9, 2014
Blog by Harvey Webster
Director of Wildlife Resources
One hundred years ago, on September 1, 1914 at 1 pm, Martha, a female Passenger Pigeon housed alone in an enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, fell dead off her perch. So, you might ask, why should we care? Because Martha was the very last of her kind, the last Passenger Pigeon on Earth. It is one of the only species that we know the exact time of its extinction. Amazingly, 100 years before, this species was thought to be one of the most numerous birds on Earth, perhaps 3 to 5 billion strong.
Not to be confused with carrier pigeons, homing pigeons or the feral pigeons of our cities, the Passenger Pigeon was a true American, resembling an overgrown Mourning Dove and nicknamed the ‘Blue Meteor’ for its swift flight. They were nomadic, massing by the millions and coursing over the great temperate deciduous forests of eastern North America in search of mast—beechnuts, acorns, chestnuts and other tree fruits that would appear periodically and irregularly in that forest empire. Their nesting areas could cover hundreds of square miles and feature such great aggregations as to overwhelm any local predators.
And when the Passenger Pigeons would migrate, they would form such huge flocks as to defy imagination. In 1806, one flock alone passing through northern Kentucky was conservatively estimated to contain more than 2.2 billion birds and took days to pass. When they massed overhead, they darkened the skies and were likened to an eclipse of the sun. They helped shape the very ecology of the forests and were truly emblematic of the biotic exuberance of America. And Ohio was at the heart of their range.
So what happened to this extraordinary force of nature? Well, we did. The Passenger Pigeons were abundant, wide ranging and they tasted good. To say we exploited the Passenger Pigeon would be a grand understatement. We subjected them to withering persecution, industrial scale harvesting, harassment of their breeding colonies and relentless destruction of their forest habitat, all facilitated by technology and fueled by ignorance.
People of the time could not fathom that the Passenger Pigeon populations had any limits. Their periodic appearances in such huge numbers left observers and market hunters with the sense that they bred far to the north, far from disturbance, and they would be wonderfully prolific now and in the future. They didn’t realize that deforestation of the northern states was laying waste to the pigeon’s breeding areas and that the market hunters, tipped off to the nesting areas by telegraph and having the railroads to deliver the pigeons to urban markets, could disturb, disrupt or destroy every nesting attempt. By the time they realized the Passenger Pigeon was in jeopardy, it was too late.
The Passenger Pigeon’s extinction represents one of the most egregious ecological catastrophes of all time, from ubiquity to oblivion in less than 100 years. But the sobering loss of the species did have one positive aspect: it helped inspire the modern conservation movement. While Martha still lived, legislation was passed granting protection to species and their breeding grounds. Refuges, parks, preserves and other wildlife areas were created to protect wild species. This conservation movement culminated in the Endangered Species Act of 1973 that recognized the necessity to protect species from development forces that would threaten their very existence.
Because of these efforts, we now celebrate and should be justly proud of the return to healthy populations of many species in the United States—bison, Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons, for example—as well as successfully pulling others back from the brink of extinction. A September 3, 2014 editorial in
The Plain Dealer proclaimed the return of bears and bobcats to Ohio, two species that had been extirpated in the region. That editorial also proclaimed the return of Ohio’s forests, habitat that once harbored Passenger Pigeons. Perhaps if the market hunters had held off towards the end, the Passenger Pigeon could have survived and flourished in our returning woodlands.
But lest we feel smug, it turns out we are in the midst of a worldwide extinction crisis, with hundreds of species disappearing every year, mostly in faraway places, victims of poaching, logged tropical rain forests, acidified coral reefs, pesticides, overfished and polluted oceans, sprawling cities and a changing climate. And though most are passing away far from our sight, many familiar species are threatened including 12 percent of all bird species worldwide. And though extinction is a natural part of the evolution of life on Earth, the current pace of extinctions is 1,000 times greater than any normal rate. The magnitude of this event is being likened to the asteroid that killed off the non-bird dinosaurs 65 million years ago. And we are the cause. We are the asteroid!
The biodiversity of Earth, that is the totality of all living species, is essential for dynamic and resilient ecosystems and a sustainable planet. Extinction impoverishes ecosystems, making them less able to function or cope with rapid change. Ultimately, it makes the environment of our planet less sustainable. Extinction touches us all and diminishes our future and that of future generations.
So therein lies the lesson of the Passenger Pigeon. Nature has limits that need to be respected and natural resources should be stewarded wisely and sustainably. The Passenger Pigeon reminds us that every species has value and shows us that no species can be sustained without its habitat and ability to reproduce. It is in our own self-interest to protect the living systems and species of our planet for they sustain us.
So on the centennial of its extinction, we should honor the memory of Martha and the Passenger Pigeon, and strive to protect every species. For their sake, for our sake and for the planet's sake.
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