Sept. 1 will mark the 100-year anniversary of the death of the last passenger pigeon. She was called Martha and was thought to be about 29 years old. Though she had lived with George, a male passenger pigeon, until four years before her death, she had never laid a fertile egg.

Her death marked the end of a species of bird whose population had been so large at one time it was estimated that every fourth bird in the United States was a passenger pigeon. Some estimate 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons were in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America.

The species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century to extinction early in the 20th century. No one seeing the vast flocks of these birds would have believed that they could become extinct within those few decades.

Important foods included acorns and nuts, and part of the problem was loss of habitat due to deforestation, but the pigeons also were hunted and killed by the millions. The birds' need to breed and roost in large, gregarious flocks made them easy prey for hunters. Considered to be very good eating, their demise was hastened by the introduction of the telegraph and the railroad. Hunters could send information where vast roosts were to be found, and wholesale slaughter would result in barrels of the dead birds being packed in ice and sent by rail to cities where they were sold for food.

By the time measures were passed to protect the vanishing birds, it was too late. It is an example of a species that cannot be resurrected from a small remaining number as has been practiced with some species, such as condors or whooping cranes.

Have we learned anything from this? It seems not, as we witness another vast population in decline, the Atlantic cod. For 500 years, the fishing industry on the upper east coast of the U.S. and Canada relied heavily on this fish. In 1992, the number of cod remaining were estimated to be only 1 percent of former levels.

Though the Canadian government then declared a moratorium, and cod harvest quotas have been drastically reduced in the U.S., the cod levels have not recovered as hoped, and one must wonder if the drastic reduction has undermined the species ability to survive. Many creatures use huge biomass as a survival strategy, often called predator satiation. It can be seen in fish, birds and even ungulates such as wildebeests.

Who'da thunk it? It seemed the fishes in the sea were endless, and surely humans could have little effect on a population so enormous. It makes me sad that the death of Martha and her kind could have had so little effect. It should be a cautionary tale, but we have not heeded its warning.


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