While Martha was part of Whitman’s flock, she and the other birds traveled by train each year from Chicago to Massachusetts during the summer. She was part of a flock maintained by a biologist named Charles Otis Whitman, who had a collection of some 30 species of pigeon. Unlike the wild pigeons that migrated for thousands of kilometers each year, Martha was raised in captivity. By the last decade of the century, few wild pigeons were seen. Squabs were particularly easy to kill, and were in high demand as food. As America moved west, forests were cut down to make way for farmland, and pigeons were killed both to protect crops, and, increasingly, as a source of food that was easy to catch, plentiful, and could be shipped by the expanding railroad system. How did the species go from billions to a handful in such a short period of time? Loss of habitat and overhunting get most of the credit. This was not good news for the farmers, since a passing flock would strip a field of all its seeds before it could be scared off. They also snacked on earthworms, snails, locusts, ants, insect larvae, as well as strawberries, cherries and other fruit.Īs more forests were cleared to make way for farmland, the pigeons discovered they liked seeds, especially buckwheat, wheat, corn, rye, and hemp. In the wild, passenger pigeons liked to eat nuts such as beech and acorns. Observers calculated their speed at at up to 97 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour)! Other historical accounts commented on how loud it was when a flock passed over-and how much destruction, and bird dung, they left behind. A description from Ontario, Canada, in 1860 recorded a band of birds more than a kilometer wide and 480 kilometers (300 miles) in length flying overhead, visible for several days. There would be so many birds overhead that the sky would be dark for hours, or even days. When Europeans first arrived in North America, there were somewhere between 3 billion and 5 billion passenger pigeons-some 25%-40% of the continent’s entire bird population!Īnd when they were on the move, people noticed. and Canada, looking for a good meal, or a place to stay a few weeks and have pigeon babies, called squabs. They were nomads who moved often, ranging over much of eastern and central U.S. The name “passenger” comes from the bird’s passage, or travel, around North America. How about messages? No again, that’s the carrier pigeon or homing pigeon. In fact, she was the very last one-when she died at age 29, her species officially went extinct.Īre you wondering how passenger pigeons got their name? Did they carry passengers? The answer is no, of course not. This Martha lived in the Cincinnati Zoo, and died 100 years ago, on September 1, 1914. Have you heard of Martha Washington? Not the first lady, married to George. Manager of Research, National Geographic Library Painting by Louis Agassi Fuertes, National Geographic
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |