These Passenger Pigeons caught my attention the most because of their exctinction due to recent human activities. The Passenger Pigeons were once one of the most abundant birds in North America and they come from the French word passager which means to"pass by". The tour guide gave us some general information about these pigeons and finally went into details. She said that there was once 3 to 5 billion of these pigeons in America alone. She also added, the exctinction of these birds were due to habitat loss which led to a mass deforestation. They were also commercialized as a cheap food for the slave in the 19th century. There were some attempts to save these birds by breeding the surviving captive pigeons were not successful. The passenger pigeon needs a large number of optimum breeding conditions. It was not possible to reestablish the species with a few captive birds and eventually, small captive flocks weakened and died. The last Passenger Pigeon was "Martha" which was named after Martha Washington. She died at the end of Zoological Garden and was donated to Smithsonian Institution where her body was mounted for display. After we heard the story of these pigeons I personally felt depressed because it changed the way I thought about nature in general and what humans to our nature and habitat. In my opinion this story should be shared around to raise awareness about the extinction of different animals around the world due to the human activities.
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