Monday was flagged as 100 years since the death of the last passenger pigeon. 100 years elapsed since the annihilation of a bird which was once found in profusion.
The last female passenger pigeon known as Martha died in a cage of the Cincinnati Zoo in the United States. She died at 12 noon due to which bird keepers paused the clock on the tower located outside the Victorian bird house at ZSL London Zoo.
A long time ago the passenger pigeon was considered as the world’s most abundant bird. Over a hundred million of birds used to darken the sky daily.
The massive rush in hunting and deforestation compel the birds to disappear from the globe in only a few decades. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most dramatic losses of a species in the human history.
Ken Norris, director of science at ZSL stated that this 100th anniversary is not merely for the remembrance of Martha. It is also notable to get attention to the dilemma of various other species who is still dealing with extinction due to our activities.
Moreover, he informed that currently ZSL is working on a large number of preservation and research projects in order to stop future extinctions.
Mark Avery, former conservation director at the RSPB wrote in his book that the passenger pigeons vanished from the world in a very short time period of one human generation. The lesson people should get from this Martha is that no species is secure until and unless we form some policies to conserve them.
