1/3/2024 0 Comments Passenger pigeonTo read any issue, click on the Passenger Pigeon cover image. 2014 was the centenary of this extraordinary extinction. THE PASSENGER PIGEON, WSO’s flagship publication, is a quarterly journal featuring a wide range of articles on Wisconsin birds, seasonal field sightings (including Christmas, May, and Big Day counts), and scientific research reports. Yet human exploitation drove this species to extinction over the course of a few decades. With a likely population between 3 and 5 billion, it was the most abundant bird in North America and probably the world. The very last passenger pigeon - a female named Martha - died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. Scientists including Gemma Murray, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Santa Cruz, knew that passenger pigeons were hunted extensively, but wondered why they didn't survive in small pockets given their huge population. To find out more, the researchers looked at museum specimens and recovered DNA to analyze. The story of the passenger pigeon is unlike that of any other bird. ![]() We have set this goal to drive the work forward quickly and to try to restore the ecological role of the passenger pigeon in the wild within our lifetime. east of the Rocky Mountains. Passenger pigeon flocks were so large, people noted the birds would block out the sun when they flew by, and would take several hours to pass. But over just a few decades, the population was driven to extinction, and scientists now believe that the enormous size of the flocks may have played a role in their demise. The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback set an ambitious goal to hatch the first generation of new Passenger Pigeons before 2025 and begin trial releases into the wild thereafter. 1885 September 1, 1914) was the last known living passenger pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius ) she was named 'Martha' in honor of the first First Lady Martha Washington. This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.Passenger pigeons once numbered between three billion and five billion in North America as recently as the 19th century. They were similar in size to pigeons we see today, but orange and brown in colour. ![]() And as always if you missed anything on The Current, grab a podcast. Tweet us Or e-mail us through our website. What do you think of the idea of resurrecting the passenger pigeon? Is it a second chance for atonement or a little too Jurassic Park for your liking? Link Century After Extinction, Passenger Pigeons Remain IconicAnd Scientists Hope to Bring Them Back A hundred years later, the passenger pigeon remains iconic and is inspiring extravagant new technological feats. The Current's Howard Goldenthal spoke with Mark Peck from the ROM to find out about an effort to bring back the species from extinction by using the DNA of a preserved passenger. About September 1, 1914, the last known passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, died at the age of 29, at the Cincinnati Zoo. The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Martha by mounting a passenger pigeon exhibit in August. Joel Greenberg is a research associate at the Field Museum and the Chicago Academy of Sciences Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Joel Greenberg has chronicled the life and death of the passenger pigeon in his new book, A Feathered River Across The Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction. ![]() Our producer Howard Goldenthal takes a selfie with the bird whose DNA could resurrect the passenger pigeon
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