Once the ruler of the sky, why did the passenger pigeon disappear in silence?

Passenger pigeon, they are so called because of their frequent migration behavior and constantly finding new places that are more convenient for reproduction.

They often migrate into herds in very large numbers, possibly up to 2 billion pigeons to fly, stretching to 500 km and up to 1.6 km wide. At that time, the sky in North America will become pitch black with brain-clattering noises. The people in the place where the birds fly through are trembling and praying, and the horses are panicked with fear.

Passenger pigeons and their eggs.

Such a "seemingly endless" pigeon pigeon can create darkness that lasts for hours. And when they pass, the ground below will be flooded with pigeons.

Once there, the pigeon is the most numerous species in North America, even in the world.

But that time was over, now that this dove has completely disappeared, only a few stuffed, dusty specimens are left on the shelf or in the museum drawer.

This is a good example of an animal that has been tremendously successful in natural evolution, who dominate the sky, but end up being extinct by humans with modern tools.

Martha, the last passenger pigeon.

The last remaining passenger pigeon is a female, named Martha. She lived for nearly 30 years in Cincinnati Park, and died in 1914, trembling from polio and never gave birth to a proper egg.

How did this happen?

Ironically, the overwhelming success of passenger pigeons in quantity is the main reason leading to their eradication. Although the appearance is quite similar to regular pigeons, the pigeon has a much larger body, males up to 40cm tall and the females are a little smaller.

They are very voracious birds, a "crowded and aggressive" pigeon pigeon will turn to forests to search for the forest chestnut trees and their seeds, this is the food they choose.

This is the problem, because with a large number of passengers, the pigeon can clean up the chestnut in a single note, which is the main food of the pigs grazed by the people. due to fattening them before slaughter.

Perhaps the passenger pigeon and the food are chestnut.

So, indirectly, the passenger pigeons are competing with an important source of food for the farmers . Because smoked pork is the only thing that helps them and their families overcome the harsh winter at that time.

Large-scale herd, collective mating, collective shelter, collective feeding are the strengths of passenger pigeons during evolution. But for humans, these things have a different meaning.

These birds are quite large and delicious when cooked, and it is important that they are numerous and easy to shoot down. Thus, a whole pigeon pigeon becomes a new and easy food source for humans.

Distribution map of passenger pigeons.

At first, people were afraid to meet the pigeons. The hunters after straying in the middle of the giant flock of birds released the gun immediately by the overwhelming noise they caused. A newspaper described the noise as a combination of thousands of beaters and many locomotives.

But gradually, everyone got used to it, and just one shot was a guarantee of one to two large birds being defeated. Or for low-flying birds, just using sticks is enough. So what will happen when using this technology and hunting?

The telegraph system provides hunters with a way to keep track of the movement of birds and follow them.

Newly built railway lines ensure that pigeon meat is transported as required.

Scientists at the time said that this dove could survive through this massacre because they reproduce very quickly, but then even the pigeon nesting areas are targeted by hunters.

Even pigeon nesting areas are targeted by hunters.

The nesting birds were taken away, the bird's nest became ragged and the eggs were taken as a special dish.

Bird painting artist John James Audubon describes the preparation for the carnage:

"Very few later pigeons were seen, but a large number of people, with horses and cars, guns and ammunition, set up campsites on the border. Two farmers from neighboring Russelsville , more than a hundred miles away from here, carrying up to 300 pigs, fattened with slaughtered pigeons. Here and over there, people were hired to shave and salty everything they collected. Yes, they sat among the birds piled up in a huge pile.

The massacre continued without any attempt to stop, and one day, the passenger pigeons suddenly disappeared, in silence.

A stuffed passenger pigeon is displayed.

However, the loss is also felt. In 1900, Congressman John Lacey introduced a law banning hunting."Wild pigeons, forming herds with millions of individuals, have completely disappeared from the Earth's surface , " he said.

The extinction of the passenger pigeon also played a big role in forming the Treaty for the Protection of the Birds in 1913, an attempt to prevent the extinction of many birds from human hands in the future.

With more advanced technology, there are now more efforts to revive this extinct bird. A group of genetic engineers are planning to change the genetic code of long-tail pigeons, a close relative to the passenger pigeon.

The goal is to keep these genetically altered birds for a while and then release them into the wild in the 2030s.