From: "John Hurst.", [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hunters put the screws to a bird called the Passenger Pigeon. It went extinct about 1900. I remember reading about it as a youth in disbelief. I thought surely it couldn't have been hunters it must have been habitat loss. Being a hunter I have always felt apologetic for that loss, but only recently while watching a documentary did the size of the genocide hit me. The commentator claimed 13 billion birds were extinguished from the earth. I couldn't believe it. I must have mis-heard him. No army could pull the triggers that many times. It was impossible. Hunters were re-deemed. It must have been some other force that committed that evil. I decided to do some research to discover the truth about the Passenger Pigeon genocide. The following facts are list relevant and, in my opinion, about as interesting as anything gets, but I'll understand if you yawn and hit the delete key, however, you won't learn about "stool pigeons" or the original "trap shooting" or ... Its highly condensed knowledge, I assure you. Their name was derived from the French word meaning pigeons of passage. And pass they did indeed, in staggering numbers sometimes reaching 2 BILLION BIRDS IN A SINGLE FLOCK (beak to tail in a single line that 2 billion birds would have stretched around the world 23 times). That single flock closed over the sky horizon to horizon like "a giant eyelid" eclipsing the light and all the while flying in near perfect unison at 60 mph. Despite their speed they took three days to pass a given point. A virtual poop sleet storm traced their movements over the ground. Close your eyes and imagine the sheer majesty of that sight and sound. God, I wish I could have seen and heard that, I surely do. They were MORE NUMEROUS THAN ALL THE OTHER NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS COMBINED, an estimated FIVE BILLION birds right here in the good old USA, not Africa, not India or China but right here in our own back yards. The MOST ABUNDANT LAND BIRD ON THE PLANET. Let that number sink in a minute. In contrast, there are only about 100 million ducks in the USA right now. There were fifty times that number of pigeons. I am not sure where the 13 billion figure came from. I believe it to be some kind of total figure of birds over a number of years, but I have no data to back that theory up as yet. The 5 billion seems to be the correct value for total peak population. Loss of habitat or natural disasters played only a minor part in their demise. By far the greatest cause of their extinction was slaughter from hunting and netting. EUROPEAN SETTLERS TOOK ONLY ABOUT 50 YEARS TO WIPE OUT THE MOST NUMEROUS SPECIES ON EARTH AND HUNTING PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE. As the species neared extinction the zeal to kill increased (do we have a list psychiatrist to explain that phenomena?); i.e., the last remaining flock of 250,000 birds was killed by shooting in (guess how many days...... ) ONE SINGLE DAY, yes one single day brought them to the brink (only 5,000 survived that day) thanks to the inventions of the telegraph and the railroad. The story of the Passenger Pigeon is the story of THE BIGGEST WILD LAND ANIMAL SLAUGHTER IN HISTORY. Most of the slaughter was from "market hunters", a distinctly different breed than sport hunters. They would stop at nothing to make their meager profits. They would do things like SEW THE EYELIDS SHUT ON THE LIVE DECOY PIGEONS CALLED "STOOL PIGEONS" which were perched on little stools as decoys. The stools were pulled out from under them at the proper moment so they would flutter and attract the wild flock to the nets and to their subsequent deaths. They employed thousands to cut down and burn down a whole forest to force the squabs out of the nests. They would destroy whole nesting sites. The market was glutted with a tremendous quantity of birds from the "market hunters" and subsequent wastes of this exquisite species for pitifully small profits was nothing short of monumental. People reported walking through large wherehouses filled with rotting birds 3 to 4 feet deep. No thought was ever given to conservation by these "market hunters", it was waste to the very end. Although the market hunters were far more damaging to the species, many sport hunters often shot and wasted tremendous numbers of birds for nothing more than fun or bragging rights. These birds were, in fact, the pigeons that made "trap" shooting wildly popular. They, of course, were the targets that were released from the "traps". They were often mutilated first to provide a more "spritely" target. Mechanical "cats" or "agitators" were meant to scare the pigeons to fly. From 1825 to 1880 up to 30 million wild pigeons were netted for contest use. One of the best trap shooters was Captain Adam Bogardus who dispatched 500 pigeons in 528 minutes while reloading his own gun. A single competition in Coney Island killed 20,000 birds. A man might have shot 30,000 in a career of trap shooting. The birds were often kept in deplorable conditions and brutalized and in 1880 public outcry ended the practice of live bird trap shooting. A brief summary of some of the more interesting facts I have found follows: The pigeon was a large bird about 17 inches in length, was blue gray with purple yellow gold and green necks, light red legs, and piercing bright red eyes - They were as beautiful as they were numerous. Their life span was about 30 years. They ranged throughout the eastern forest lands and lived primarily on mast (nuts) such as acorns, chestnuts and especially beech nuts. As such they were a minimal threat to farmer's crops. They had voracious appetites and could open their beaks 1 inch wide to accommodate the nuts. They could puke if they found something they liked better than what they had eaten. If nuts were not available they would move on to berries, seeds, grain or insects and worms. They would eat nuts in huge quantities. Each bird would eat an eighth of a pint of mast per day and in a year a huge flock would eat enough to fill a wherehouse 100 feet wide 100 feet high by 25 miles long. Feeding flocks of pigeons took on the appearance of rolling cylinders with a diameter of about 50 yards since the birds in the rear constantly had to fly to the front in order to secure more mast. The interior of the rolling cylinder was filled with flying leaves and grass. Not even snow deterred their feeding practice. They would leave a churned up forest floor in their wake for miles. They twittered and squeaked while feeding, a sound when multiplied by millions was quite deafening not to mention the sound of their flapping. God, I wish I could have seen and heard that. Most nestings were reasonably small, usually covering 33 square miles, but they could get quite large. One in 1871 covered 850 square miles and contained 135 million birds, the total remaining population at the time. Every tree contained nesting birds. Their nesting was coordinated; i.e., they all built nests at the same time, laid at the same time, and abandoned the chicks at the same time. The chicks flew off at the same time. They were fast flyers that flew in unison in large flocks and rarely had a mid air collision. Fog would confuse them and bring them down, particularly the young birds. They would drown if over water so they tried to avoid water crossings. One large group washed up on the shore of Lake Michigan. Their feet were holding on to each other in a long chain appearing like "long ropes of onions." Some Indian tribes would not kill nesting birds and threatened whites who did. Chief Pokagon of the Potawotomi said in 1895 that the birds continued to increase when only Native Americans were hunting them. Laws to protect the pigeon were enacted, but were ineffective (see the book reference to learn why if you're interested). The population declined until in March of 1900 Press Clay Southworth, a 14 year old boy shot the last remaining wild pigeon with a 12ga. in Pike Co. Ohio. He didn't know what kind of bird it was so naturally he wanted to shoot it (a fitting end to the species I suppose). The family, realizing the importance of the bird, took it to a local hobby taxidermist who stuffed it. She didn't have any eyes, so she used some buttons and the bird became known as buttons. The mount is a prized museum piece today. The last remaining bird in captivity died in the Cincinati Zoo Sept. 1, 1914 thus ending the species forever. It is a very rare thing indeed to know the exact time of the extinction of a species. Her name was Martha. She was 29 when she died. She lived her whole life in captivity. Her perch had to be lowered as she aged so she could get to it. She was mounted as well. There are about 2200 mounted birds from a 5 billion original population. All captive breeding programs were feeble efforts that obviously failed. Ornithologists of the day raced to shoot their own specimens when a species was going extinct so they could be sure to get some to mount before the die off was complete. They placed a great deal of emphasis on this and killed a significant number of the last remaing population rather than trying to save them, go figure? The invention of the first underground seed drill / planter machine was due to the birds in 1860. There currently is no effort being expended to clone extinct species back into existence, with the possible exception of a Japanese effort to clone a frozen Mammoth since current technology considers it impossible. The main problem is not the cloning itself but that the DNA has deteriorated and filling in missing genetic information is not possible. The DNA in this case would come from the mounted specimens. If anyone had properly frozen any of the DNA we could be listening to a flock as we read. It's very expensive to conduct work in this field and the money is arguably better spent to save the endangered species that are still alive. This all makes perfect sense, of course, but I damn sure would like to see and hear a large flock flying free again, or at least give my grandkids a shot at it. IF ANY OF YOU GUYS AND GALS HAVE ANY INFORMATION OR JUST AN INTEREST IN CLONING PLEASE CONTACT ME OFF LIST - I'D APPRECIATE IT. If you want to read about 4 more extinct birds us hunters put the screws to as well as the pigeon, I whole heartedly recommend the following book. I MUST WARN YOU THE GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF MAN'S CRUELTIES TO ANIMALS ARE DIFFICULT TO DEAL WITH, at least they were for me. Like me, you may not be able to put this book down. The birds include some really amazing ones - how about a small green gorgeous real American parrot (Carolina Parakeet) that was widely distributed by the millions and overwintered even in temperatures down to 20 below zero! They looked like green leaves on the bare trees of winter. Or how about a 2.5 foot long wood pecker that made short work of tree bark with his large ivory bill and may still be lurking down there in deepest Florida. Other amazing ones as well I guarantee it. The book: "Hope is a Thing With Feathers" by Christopher Cokinos. Amazon.com has good reviews and even quite a long excerpt from this book. There are other Passenger Pigeon reference sites to be found on the web, one supposedly with a recorded voice of Martha, others with good descriptions of the flock sizes etc. One describes his incredible good fortune of purchasing a beautifully mounted glass encased specimen at auction and researching a scribbled name on the back of the mount and eventually contacting the decedents of the person. I read about the Passenger Pigeon with the hope of finding some redemption for hunters. I found none. Instead I curiously found an intense hatred for the people that callously robbed me and mine of the glorious presence of this bird. I even came away with a perplexity of feelings of why the species was left to go completely extinct, a seemingly totally unnecessary event. Were the people of the day completely insensitive or simply stupid? I have concluded they were both. My solemn hope is that, put simply, species extinction has finally become critically important to us all. - Wayne -- This is a tragic story, but I stand by what I said about what effect banning fox hunting will have on foxes, because people don't kill foxes to sell them off and the maintenance of habitat is fundamental to the survival of any species in this country, the countryside of 21st century Britain is very different from 19th century North America. Steve. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________________________ T O P I C A -- Learn More. Surf Less. Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Topics You Choose. http://www.topica.com/partner/tag01
