Passenger Pigeon - Tumblr Posts

On this day in 1914, Martha, the last-known living Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her death at age 29 after a lifetime in captivity marked the disappearance of her once-abundant species from the world. And it made her name synonymous with species extinction at human hands. But what happened?

Before the second half of the nineteenth century, the Passenger Pigeon was the most common bird in the United States, with a population numbering in the billions. Flocks of pigeons flying overhead were so dense that they could darken the skies. But a combination of overhunting and habitat destruction sent this species into decline, and by the turn of the century, it was considered extinct in the wild.

Photo: Enno Meyer, CC0 1.0, Wikimedia Commons

"Soon my love we will join the others under the museum lights, but for now, under the starlight, you are glowing"

The last Passenger Pigeon and last Carolina Parakeet on earth both died at the Cincinnati zoo in the early 1900s.

A group called Revive and Restore actually has the goal of getting the first few new passenger pigeons before 2025 (They set this in 2019, though, so they might have to change it. No necessarily, pigeons only take like a month from the start of development to hatching. But I'm pessimistic.).

Every so often, I'll get super interested in one of a few things getting worked on as possible cool future things

I think the list is transhumanism, robotics, true ai, and de-extinction (my considering them cool is subjective, with weird science shit ya never know what might end up badly)

A new cycle has begun.

And de-extinction has captured my brain