Extinct animals wandering pigeon. Wandering pigeons. Huge flock habitats

Exactly 100 years ago, on the first day of September, the last wandering pigeon disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Photo of Martha, the last of the wandering pigeons. Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (Washington)

In 1813, birdwatcher John James Audubon was traveling through Kentucky when the sky was darkened by a giant flock of wandering pigeons. The bird cloud continued its flight throughout the day. Audubon estimated the number of birds in the flock at 1 billion. According to other scientists, there were 3-5 billion wandering pigeons in America at that time.

One century later, on September 1, 1914, at one o'clock in the afternoon, 29-year-old Martha, the last of the pigeons, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. For a hundred years, the remains of a bird have been kept in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, as a reminder of the fragility of natural ecosystems and the real threat of extinction of species.

Until the 1840s, itinerant pigeons were the most abundant birds in North America. They flourished almost throughout the United States from the plains of the central part of the country to the east and, according to various estimates, comprised 25% to 40% of all birds. At twice the size of our common pigeons, they ate mainly seeds and nuts, and lived in huge, socially structured flocks.

However, during the second half of the 19th century, the number of wandering pigeons fell at an alarming rate. By the 1870s, it became clear that the number of birds had decreased so much that they could no longer restore their numbers, the flocks were becoming smaller and smaller.

The first reason for the extinction of pigeons was deforestation for building houses and maintaining farms, it violated life cycle birds. After all, huge flocks needed large forests for nesting and feeding. After the reduction of the forest area and the development of farming, poultry began to look for food in the farmers' fields, often causing damage to crops. Farmers began to fight the birds, killing them in the hundreds and using them for food. However, this was not critical for the well-being of itinerant pigeons.

The real trouble came when professional hunters became interested in birds, who began to donate their trophies to stores as a cheap source of protein. Pigeons lived in large colonies in which individuals were closely tied to each other by invisible threads. This feature, which once contributed to the stability of the population, has become a source of trouble. As soon as a professional hunter noticed a flock of pigeons in the area, the news immediately spread among colleagues, they pulled nets or simply shot the pigeons in thousands with guns. The flock was similar to a single organism, so even seeing that the birds fall and die on the ground, the rest did not fly away, exposing themselves to the shots.

There were other, more brutal methods of murder. People laid steaming sulfur under the nests, the birds fainted and fell from the nests to the ground. Some "clever men" soaked grains in alcohol, and then pigeons could be taken without any weapons.

When scientists realized the danger of extinction of the species, they began to sound the alarm and make efforts to save the traveling pigeons. However, the ruthless killings continued. At the time, the security work environment just beginning, there were no laws at all to protect birds. The first 10-year ban on hunting pigeons was first passed in Michigan in 1897. However, it was too late, only a few representatives of this species remained in nature, which were not enough to restore the population.

Last reported sighting of a wandering pigeon in wildlife dates back to 1900. By this time, only a few birds survived in captivity. Searches for wandering pigeons were organized and awards for live birds were announced. Between 1909 and 1912, the American Ornithologists' Union offered $ 1,500 to anyone finding a nest or nesting colony of wandering pigeons. However, it was all in vain. Never again did a person become a witness to the grandiose spectacle of the migratory flight of these fast and graceful birds in spring and autumn.

Attempts to preserve the species by breeding in captivity have not been successful. As colonial birds, large numbers of individuals were required for optimal breeding conditions. Small flocks of birds in captivity were weakened and died.

In the end, Martha was the only one left. When she died, all of America learned that the last representative of the wandering pigeons had disappeared from the face of the Earth. It was shock and deep sadness. This was the first awareness of the extinction of the species before our eyes. The zoo fenced off Martha's cage and declared this place a quiet zone. Subsequently, Martha's body was transferred to the Museum of Natural History. A stuffed animal was made of it, which was exhibited as an exhibit in the museum. Now the scarecrow has been preserved and put into storage for eternal storage.

A century later, the history of the wandering pigeon remains a worrying fact for those concerned about the environment. Their extermination triggered the adoption of many laws for the protection of birds, thanks to which many species of birds were saved, and Martha became the canonical image in the conservation of species on Earth.

American bard John Herald wrote a song about this sad story

The red book got fat again
(continued)

2 .1.2 ... American wandering pigeon -
textbook example
direct human extermination
the most massive bird on the planet

Illustration story for Chapter 2

"The history of the extermination of wandering pigeons -
the most amazing nature drama
with human participation ".
Igor Akimushkin "Traces of unseen animals", 1961

American wandering pigeon Ectopistes migratorius - one of the most widespread species of birds that have ever lived on Earth. The total number of these birds by the beginning of the 19th century was estimated at 4-5 billion individuals \u003d up to 40% of the total bird population in the United States. The largest described breeding colony in Wisconsin covered each tree in the forest over an area of \u200b\u200b850 square miles and numbered about 136 million individuals. And during the flights, these colonies united in flocks that darkened the sky. Ornithologist Alexander Wilson saw in 1810 a flock of pigeons flying over it in a continuous ribbon for 4 hours, stretching for 380 km. The noise of the wings was so loud that it blocked the ears. Wilson counted approximately 1,115,135,000 individuals in this flock!

Wandering pigeons in the wild ate acorns, chestnuts, beeches and other nuts. And in the fields cultivated by man - what God sent. Crowds of "hunters" - colonists, who gathered from all over the area, were waiting for them at feeding places and, especially, at overnight stays. They destroyed birds in all ways: they caught them with nets, fired from guns, pistols, even machine guns. Some of them took revenge for the damage to crops, others earned money by fishing pigeon meat and feathers, and still others for entertainment. And at first the flocks of pigeons were so thick and sometimes they flew so low that the boys knocked them down with poles, and the fishermen with oars.
But in 1878 the last large colony in Michigan was destroyed - 50 thousand birds were killed there every day for five months. And in the mid-1890s, the migratory flocks no longer numbered hundreds or even tens of millions. And the last time in nature, a wild wandering pigeon was seen in 1900 in Ohio.

In 1909, the American Ornithological Union announced a $ 1,200 reward to anyone who finds at least one “live” nest. The Cincinnati Zoo raised this amount to $ 15,000 (an astronomical amount for that time!) - if they get a male for Martha. However, Martha - the last female American wandering pigeon on Earth, living alone in this zoo - and died an "old maid" without waiting for her husband, September 1, 1914 at the age of 29 years. There is a monument to her at the Cincinnati Zoo.

The Cincinnati Zoo still exists today. Many people - and not only Americans - walk past the Martha monument. And they very rarely pay attention to him. And who will convert - unless only to take a selfie against the background of "something monumental." Without reflecting, and indeed without thinking at all, for whom this bronze monument calls.

And in Wisconsin in Wyalusing National Park in 1947, with the participation of Aldo Leopold himself, a memorial was opened: "In memory of the last Wisconsin wandering pigeon killed in Babcock, September 1899. This species became extinct due to greed and frivolity of man.".

Scientific and technological progress contributed to the organized extermination of pigeons. The emergence of telegraph communication and the network railways allowed to arrange trade in poultry meat by carriage deliveries on a transcontinental scale. The last point in this story was the deforestation of large areas, which led to the disappearance of nesting colonies: it turned out that the wandering pigeon could not maintain its existence in small groups.

What is remarkable, simultaneously with the extermination of wandering pigeons in America at the opposite end of the world, in Europe and Russian Empire finished off the tarpans - the progenitors of all domestic horses. Around the same time as Martha, and to be precise, in 1918, the last tarpan on Earth died in the same loneliness in the private estate Dubrovka of Mirgorodsky district of Poltava province. What an irony of a horse's fate! The descendants of the people who tamed the wild horse (it was here, in the Dnieper steppes of Ukraine for the first time in the world 55 centuries ago by the Sredniy Stogites that the wild steppe horse tarpan was tamed), turned out to be his guides on his last journey. But more on that later, in the chapter "Cemetery of Extinct Species".

June 3, 1995 - even before the invention of inexpensive methods of sequencing and decoding the genome - American ornithologist Holland E. Shaw in the journal "Birding" has published an article "The Return of the Wandering Pigeon." In it he wrote: “The science of recombinant DNA is a technological breakthrough; new knowledge and specific methods are constantly evolving. And, in light of the current advances in human genome reading and DNA sequencing tens of millions of years old, we are rapidly approaching the time when we can revive extinct animals or plants "... In 2013, Holland Shaw created the website "The Return of the Wandering Dove" and is looking for enthusiasts who will help him fulfill his 40-year-old childhood dream of resurrecting a real living wandering dove with the help of modern methods genetic engineering and breeding: "And I am ready to assert that Ectopistes migratorius belongs to the North American sky as surely as clouds and stars.".

In addition to Holland Shaw, other dreamers have also been encouraged by the success of modern genetics in the USA and Canada. A group of American scientists led by writer and environmentalist Stewart Brand and Harvard Medical School genetic engineer George Church have devised a plan to bring the extinct species back to life. Within the framework of the project "Revive and Restore" ( Revive & restore) they plan to insert the genes of the wandering pigeon into the DNA of its related striped pigeon, Patagioenas fasciata. The modified genome is then inserted into the nuclei of the stem cells of the striped-tailed pigeon and forced to turn into embryonic cells, from which the bird's reproductive organs are formed. From such operated eggs, chicks will hatch, outwardly indistinguishable from the striped pigeon, but carrying the DNA of a wandering pigeon. And then there will be a selective crossing of these pigeon "Frankent Steins" in order to manifest a phenotype that is most similar to an extinct species.

The path is difficult and expensive. But the enthusiasts are optimistic and are actively working on the project. "Over the past 10 thousand years, people have punched a huge hole in nature, but now we have the opportunity to patch some damage,- says Stuart Brand. "We can not only expand and protect populations of endangered animals, but also return to this world those species that have completely exterminated.".

However, ecologists do not share the optimism of laboratory geneticists. Now, a century after Martha's death, it became clear that no bonus would have saved the wandering pigeon from extinction \u003d the life line of this super-massive colonial species was interrupted when the last large nesting colony disappeared. After all, in the 19th century, there were already reserves in the United States, and many thousands of populations survived in these islets of wildlife. Which nobody touched. And they died out anyway. Because they were - in terms of a wandering pigeon - still too small.

A pair of American Passenger Pigeons lays only one egg per season. In order to obtain by breeding methods their artificial colony capable of self-sustaining (i.e., a colony of a million individuals of these SUPER-gregarious birds), mankind will need tens of times longer than it took to exterminate the species. The cost is comparable to the exploration of the Moon or Mars. And time \u003d many hundreds of years! Which humanity does not have.

An incredibly sensual wandering dove for many people has become a real symbol of love and tenderness. Surprisingly, this bird, like a man, has sought a mate for itself only once in its life. The birds took care of their chicks together and even hatched eggs one by one. The story of their life and why so many flocks disappeared will be discussed in this article. The story of an extinct breed once again presents society with a sad and instructive story.

The most interesting species of these pigeons was famous not only for touching habits, but also attracted the attention of passers-by with a bright color of feathers. The heads and loins of the birds were dark blue, and the long necks of the birds were bright red. Small sides delighted the viewer with a purple hue, and neat abdomens were snow-white.

The general riot of colors was complemented by bright red eyes and a graceful long blue tail. The extinct pigeon was a medium sized bird:

• the body length of males varied from 38 to 41 cm;
• the body of females is 37-40 cm;
• weight from 260 to 350 g;
• beak 15-17 mm (with the help of it birds could peck seeds and nuts from the ground).

Individuals of both sexes had the same color, so a person could easily get lost in a riot of colors, trying to see a single bird... The birds surprised the audience not only with the color of the feathers, but also with their touching habits, because wandering pigeons, like a large and friendly family, always kept together.

Huge flock habitats

Amazing pigeons have become a natural proof of true friendship and solidarity, because, despite the great danger, they always huddled in huge flocks.

Eyewitnesses recall that the number of birds flying by was so great that during the time the birds were in the air, people could not see a gap in the sky.

The view, sunk into oblivion, allowed a person to plunge into the plot of a fairy tale, because the space above his head was painted for several minutes into a real living rainbow. Experts say that, by the will of fate, it was the habit of sticking together that helped the wandering pigeons disappear from the face of the earth forever.

The birds were inhabited by deciduous forests in the east of the North American continent, mainly in huge flocks gathered near oak trees. The number of one "family" was estimated in millions of individuals, and at the same time, the wandering pigeon in a very short time disappeared forever.

The emergence of new individuals into the world

Once such a common wandering pigeon, it was distinguished by very little fertility. One pair of birds raised only one chick per year. Moreover, for both parents, hatching an egg was a responsible business, which lasted about 14-16 days. After, for two weeks, the adults took care of the baby and fed him diligently.

The most beautiful view of the feathered one was distinguished by one more feature - a mating dance. The "in love" male clearly protruded his chest and lowered his tail spread out in a fan, demonstrating his interest to the female.

The nesting period until the very extinction of the wandering pigeons lasted from March to May. A male and a female participated in the construction of the “dwelling”. The quick-witted birds were very loyal allies, because they created pairs once and for life.

The reasons for the disappearance of the species

The faithful and friendly species of pigeons was once measured in several billion individuals, but in a short time the birds, like the wind, disappeared from the face of the earth. It can be said without any doubt that man is to blame for the disappearance of the wandering birds. Individuals gathered in huge dense flocks, so the hunters rushing for profit killed dozens of birds with one shot.

Wandering pigeons did not see a huge danger in peopleawn, and this ultimately killed them. The American Indians knew well that the bird meat is very tasty, but despite their lack of education, they never hunted them during nesting. This rule was neglected by "gourmets" in the 19th century, and then the mass shooting of birds began.

The wandering species of pigeons begins to be exterminated, the number of individuals became less and less. It is assumed that then no one paid attention to the endangered birds, so the era of their existence quickly came to an end.

According to some reports, the last pigeon in the wild died in 1899 in Ohio, other sources indicate that this happened in 1900. But at that time the only representative of the wandering pigeon was still in captivity. Martha was the name of the Cincinnati Zoo specimen who died in 1914.

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From the once countless flocks of these birds, only a few museum exhibits have survived - stuffed animals, skeletons and ... drawings by artists and naturalists.

The total number of these birds of the pigeon family was estimated at 3-5 billion individuals. One of the most widespread birds on the planet ... until the 19th century.

Passenger pigeon or Ectopistes migratorius, 35-40 cm in size, with an elongated neck, a small gray head and a wedge-shaped tail. The mass of a bird is from 250 to 340 g. Gray-gray color, brownish back, reddish breast. Black beak, red legs and eyes. The pair bred only 1 chick per season.

The wandering pigeon is found in the deciduous forests of the North American continent east of the Rocky Mountains. South and Central Canada. Wintering grounds are in the South of the USA. Individual colonies numbered up to hundreds of millions of pigeons.

The vast flock of spiral formation could stretch up to 300 km. Eyewitnesses describe that the flight of a flock of wandering pigeons, exclusively in search of food, was accompanied by a deafening noise from millions of strong wings. The sky was covered with an "endless cloud" covering the sun. The birds flew in several layers so that one shotgun shot could "get" several dozen individuals. Until now, the desire of pigeons to keep and nest in such huge flocks remains a biological mystery. In 1878, the nesting pigeon colony in Michigan occupied all the trees of the forest with an area of \u200b\u200b15 * 57 km, and each tree had about a hundred nests.

Settlement of a wandering pigeon was where the food was. On the territory rich in food, the whole flock gathered in a circle, forming a kind of rotating cylinder. They ate nuts and acorns, chestnuts, berries, fruits. Thick branches broke under the weight of the birds, and the incredible flight speed (up to 1 mile per minute) and the fast repetitive flapping of the wings produced an incessant rumble. Eyewitness researchers note the developed external senses of birds, which gave them the opportunity to view the surroundings during the most impetuous flight, finding food.

The decline in numbers from 1800 to 1870 was slow. From 1870 to 1890, a multibillion-dollar population was completely destroyed. In 1900 (according to some reports in 1907), the last wandering pigeon in the wild was seen in Ohio. In September 1914 in the Zoological Garden of Cincinnati (USA), the only representative of the species, the dove Martha, who remained and lived in captivity, died.

And it all started very promising ... In 1848 the state of Massachusetts passed a decree banning catching pigeons with nets. After 3 years in the state of Vermont, all non-commercial birds and wandering pigeons were also taken under protection. Other states have passed mining ban laws. But ... we were talking about delicious meat, profitable business and big money ... The population took up arms. The “harvest harvest” during bird breeding from March to July reached 1.5 million. In the 70s of the XIX century. The United States and Canada “harvested” hundreds of millions of pigeons. Crowds of "hunters" killed the unfortunate birds in places of feeding, lodging and nesting in all possible ways: with long poles, stones, oars; fired from guns and rifles, caught with nets; poisoned, lighting pots of sulfur under the trees at the place of overnight stays; they exploded dynamite and even a machine gun was first created for the war with pigeons. Carrying out the railway and telegraph into the interior of the continent contributed to the early notification of the presence of the population and the delivery of prey to the market.

"Extinction of a species due to greed and frivolity of man" - such is the inscription on a plaque in Wisconsin, installed by the local ornithological society in memory of legions of wandering birds and the last Wisconsin pigeon killed here in 1899.
Modern genetic and breeding science proposes ... the resurrection of the wandering pigeon as a species. But ... time will tell if humanity will ever see firsthand the population of the disappeared birds.

Today I would like to digress a little from the topic and highlight the less well-known Black Pages of the Red Book. They contain information about those whom we will never see.
I know of several animals listed on these pages, including two pigeons - Dodo (dodo, wingless pigeon) and the American wandering pigeon. The latter will be discussed.
The wandering pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct bird of the pigeon family. Until the 19th century it was one of the most common birds on Earth, total which were estimated at 3-5 billion individuals.
1. Habitat:
Deciduous forests of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, from southern and central Canada to North Carolina, wintered in the southern United States
2. Weight:
250-340 g.
3. Life Expectancy:
5 - 15 years old.
4. Enemies:
A wide variety of beasts of prey, daytime predator birds (mainly hawks, falcons, forest eagles), owls, tree snakes. Clutches and chicks also became prey for monitor lizards, possums, and monkeys. Person.
5. Food / meal:
Acorns, chestnuts, beech and other nuts.
6. Behavior:
They flew low, in large flocks.
7. Social structure:
Flocks (colonies).
Individual colonies numbered billions of birds. Hardly any birds gathered in such monstrous flocks. They flew over the ground in such thick clouds that they literally obscured the sky. Flying birds covered the entire sky from horizon to horizon, the noise from their flapping wings like the whistle of a storm wind.
"I saw the flight of pigeons in the spring. The flock seemed to have no beginning, no end, no length, no width, and the birds flew so densely that I could not see the sun," wrote a shocked eyewitness.
8. Season / period of breeding and offspring:
During the season, a pair of wandering pigeons bred only one chick.
9. Benefit / harm to humans:
They ate millions of tons of food and gave food to others. A colossal stream of substances and energy went through this species. Moreover, pigeons quickly transported these substances and energy over long distances.
10. Population / Conservation Status:
Extinct.
Living in captivity (at the Cincinnati Zoo), a wandering pigeon named "Martha" died on September 1, 1914. This was the last representative of an unusually numerous species not long ago.
11. History of the name:
Wandering pigeons did not like to sit in one place for many years. When food supplies were depleted, they left the nesting sites. Large masses of birds appeared in places where no one had seen them before. There they nested for several years in a row, then disappeared to reappear after many years. This way of life gave rise to the corresponding names in a variety of languages. The Narraganset Indians called this pigeon "muskovan" - a wanderer.
12. Interesting facts:
1. A little over a hundred years ago, this pigeon was the most numerous bird in the United States, if not the whole world.
2. It happened that in the vicinity of New York, pigeons were killed, whose goiter contained rice, while they could only eat it in the fields of Carolina.
3. Could reach Europe (from America) in 3 days.
4. One of the first American ornithologists, Alexander Wilson, saw in 1810 a flock of wandering pigeons that flew over him for four hours. It stretches for 380 km. He roughly calculated how many birds there were, and got an incredible figure - 1,115,135,000 pigeons!
5. On a day, such an army of birds ate 617 cubic meters of all kinds of food. "This is more," writes British naturalist Frank Lane, "the daily ration of soldiers of all warring countries by the end of World War II!"
6. Destroyed pigeons in all possible ways that were suitable for this. They fired from rifles, rifles, pistols. Even the machine gun was first invented for the war with pigeons. So dense were the flocks of pigeons and sometimes they flew so low that the colonists knocked them down with their poles, and the fishermen with their oars.
7. Between 1860 and 1870, millions of wandering pigeons were killed, but in the following decade, only hundreds of thousands, and by 1890 all large nesting colonies of wandering pigeons had been destroyed. And although there were no longer mass hunts, the last wandering pigeon was killed in 1899 (according to other sources, 7 years later).
8. The extermination of a fantastically numerous species was so sudden that for a long time the Americans could not recover from the unexpectedness of what had happened. Several "theories" were invented to explain the stunningly fast, "like a dynamite explosion", disappearance of pigeons (by the way, this very dynamite was also used when hunting them!) According to one "theory", all the pigeons allegedly drowned in Atlantic Oceanwhen they "emigrated" to South America. They even thought of that the wandering pigeons flew away as if to the North Pole and froze there.
9. In Wisconsin, the local ornithological society erected a plaque with the inscription: “In memory of the last Wisconsin wandering pigeon killed in Babcon in September 1899. This species became extinct due to the greed and frivolity of man "