Martha, the last of her kind.

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Do you believe our "Hunting Fore Fathers" are the only ones to blame for the demise of all of Martha's Relatives?

In those day's, there were very few people who would believe the idea that humanity could "have any impact on the passenger pigeons.”
(Audubon himself dismissed those who believed that “such dreadful havoc” as hunting would “soon put an end to the species.”)


The passenger pigeon,  once the most common bird in the United States and the most abundant species of bird on Earth, numbering in the billions. A report from 1866 of a single flock was one mile wide and 300 miles long, took 14 hours to pass by, and may have consisted of 3.5 billion birds.

"Martha," the last bird of the species, died at age 29 at the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 1, 1914. Upon her death, Martha was frozen into a 300-pound block of ice and shipped by train to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to be preserved.

In this age of "Cloning", if it were possible, would you want to see Martha's kind return to the skies?
Critics of passenger pigeon de-extinction have rightly noted that the birds were not merely over-hunted to oblivion. They lost their habitat, too: Vast forests of oak and chestnut and beech were cut down and replaced by farms and cities. Some of those forests have returned, but a new generation of passenger pigeons would inevitably forage in farms and gardens.
Would we be willing to share with them again or are you content with the influx of Eurasian White Collared Doves filling your bird feeder? 

Doug

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj1kufX6ovfAhVDLn0KHcO1BKQQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffeederwatch.org%2Fblog%2Feurasian-collared-doves-conquering-america%2F&psig=AOvVaw28wO3GB6yVwP3E42whRyC8&ust=1544207295944364

[pianoman9701]

I seriously doubt that the passengers would have become extinct without the massive shooting that was happening before the turn of the century. Habitat may have been a big factor but probably not near as big as the hunting. I have a pellet rifle for the collard doves but my wife forbids their demise in our yard. She sure liked that squab from "the store" a few weeks ago, though. 

[Alchase]

That map is 18 years out of date. We have them all over Oklahoma now. We get Eurasian collared doves and Morning Doves in our backyard all year round.
I am so tempted to try collared dove BBQ, they are twice the size of the morning doves.

[boneaddict]

I blast the heck out of them.   They were “cool” at first, but they are dang near locust proportions.   

[Fishmaker57]

I try and shoot every one I see....and eat them! They are great table fare, at least around our location......lots of wheat fields.

[chiwawadan]

I took out two Eurasian Collared Dove's recently. In my freezer, but good looking meat!