01/09/2025
On this date in history (September 1, 1914), an entire species vanished from the earth forever.
Her name was Martha, and she was the last known Passenger Pigeon in the world. She died of old age, alone in her enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.
It's hard to imagine now, but the Passenger Pigeon was once believed to be the most numerous bird in North America, with a population estimated at 3 to 5 billion. 🕊️
Naturalists like John James Audubon wrote about migrations so massive they blocked out the sun for hours, sometimes for days, as a single flock passed overhead.
So what happened? The birds were victims of relentless commercial hunting on a scale that is difficult to comprehend today. They were harvested by the millions for cheap food.
At the same time, their habitat was disappearing. The vast hardwood forests they needed for nesting and feeding were being cleared for farms and cities. 🌳
Because they relied on massive numbers to breed successfully, the species collapsed once the population fell below a certain point, leading to a rapid decline.
After Martha died, her body was preserved in ice and sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where she remains today as a symbol of extinction.
Her story served as a powerful and sobering lesson, helping to inspire the American conservation movement and contributing to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
