Road Runner Posted January 21, 2019 Share #1 Posted January 21, 2019 From Scientific American: "John James Audubon knew birds. As part of what he called his “frenzy” for avians, the French-American naturalist attempted to survey and document in drawings all the native bird species of North America. And it is Audubon who in 1833 identified the passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, as the most numerous bird on the continent, highlighting the point by describing a mile-wide flock of migrating pigeons that passed over his head and blocked the sun for three straight days. In fact, the passenger pigeon in the early 1800s may have been the most numerous bird in the world, with an estimated population of at least three billion birds—or at least a third as much as the total population of all kinds of birds in North America today. Yet, by 1900, none survived in the wild, and on September 1, 1914, the very last one, named Martha, was found dead on the floor of her cage in the Cincinnati Zoo. The species had gone from extraordinarily populous to extinct in a single human life span." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted January 21, 2019 Share #2 Posted January 21, 2019 I didn;t know that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted January 21, 2019 Share #3 Posted January 21, 2019 Further reading - well, other people besides Further may also read it 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted January 21, 2019 Author Share #4 Posted January 21, 2019 Just now, RalphWaldoMooseworth said: I didn;t know that! I just recently heard about it. The internet can be a truly wonderful thing. So much information, literally at our fingertips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted January 21, 2019 Share #5 Posted January 21, 2019 Just now, Road Runner said: I just recently heard about it. The internet can be a truly wonderful thing. So much information, literally at our fingertips. Just think how much we could have learned if SW hadn;t distracted us with a place where we could post and read random drivel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickinMD ★ Posted January 21, 2019 Share #6 Posted January 21, 2019 Thanks all the Passenger Pigeons info! I remember seeing a photo of Martha, the last one which died in 1914, when I was a kid in the 1950's. I just read the Audubon article: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2014/why-passenger-pigeon-went-extinct I also learned from Google that: Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning "passing by." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted January 21, 2019 Share #7 Posted January 21, 2019 I don't know why I knew that but I did know about the Passenger Pigeons. We nearly did the same to the Bison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirwickWithCheese Posted January 21, 2019 Share #8 Posted January 21, 2019 You guys make me sick. :( https://squarewheelscycling.com/index.php?/topic/67637-interesting-but-obscure-facts/&tab=comments#comment-610942 I shared MANY threads on my love for Martha at LF but unfortunately I can no longer prove this for obvious reasons. You two weasels have really upset me now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Road Runner Posted January 21, 2019 Author Share #9 Posted January 21, 2019 3 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said: Just think how much we could have learned if SW hadn;t distracted us with a place where we could post and read random drivel. Random drivel is the worse kind of drivel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now