Chapter 19 Endangered Species 473 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. The Passenger Pigeon The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once the most abundant bird in North America. A single flock, which could have a billion or more birds, would darken the sky and make more noise than several freight trains. The flocks took hours to fly past an area, leaving the surroundings covered in white pigeon excrement. In the mid- to late 1890s, wild flock sizes had plummeted and birds numbered in the dozens rather than the hundreds of millions. Many people believed that no amount of exploitation could endanger a creature so abundant. They believed this even with Extinct Animals the decimation of the American bison population in North America. By 1899, habitat loss and unregulated hunting had reduced the American bison (Bison bison) population from 20 to 30 million to a mere 1091. Harvesting for subsistence did not threaten the species survival. Commercial harvesting, however, and the national expansion of the telegraph and railroad were the beginning of the pigeon’s extinction. The railroad made it easier for sportsmen to follow flocks around the country and reach nesting sites. Hunters disrupted nesting grounds and harvested squabs and eggs as delicacies and feathers were often used for adornments on clothing and hats. The birds were shot, caught with nets, smoked or burned from their nests, asphyxiated with burning sulfur, attacked with rakes and pitchforks, poisoned with whisky-soaked corn, and shot with special firearms that killed multiple birds quickly. The birds were being killed faster than they could reproduce. It is not known exactly why the few thousands of remaining birds could not repopulate. Their scattered distribution may have interfered with their breeding abilities. There had been no effort to save the passenger pigeon, and in 1914, the last of the species, a female named Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo. Consider This 1. Which acts of Congress to protect birds were passed between 1900 and 1918? What does each act protect? 2. How would you use the passenger pigeon’s story to educate people? 3. Project Revive & Restore is dedicated to resurrecting extinct animals through the manipulation of genetic coding. If the program were successful, how would the reintroduction of an extinct species affect the environment? 4. How would the reintroduction of an extinct species compare to the introduction of an invasive species? 5. How did the dickcissel, a sparrow-like migrant bird, almost become extinct? How was the species saved? 6. For which animal species were pigeons an important food source? How did the bird’s extinction affect these animal species? Panaiotidi/Shutterstock.com