Imagine billions of birds in flocks so large they darken the sky for hours.
Imagine them all disappearing in a human lifetime.
That, in brief, is the story of the passenger pigeon-in its heyday, believed to be the most numerous bird on the planet.
The bird was hunted relentlessly and its habitat destroyed. The passenger pigeon never recovered from this onslaught.
The bird’s history is told in a quiet pavilion at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. This is where Martha, the last passenger pigeon on Earth, died in 1914. The memorial is a somber National Historic Landmark tucked away in the bustling zoo.
The 67-acre park and garden is an attractive, exciting, generally cheerful place, considered to be one of the best zoos in the country.
Every day, visitors line up to see some of the world’s most exotic animals. The zoo’s attractions include white tigers, Komodo dragons and Andean condors.
And every day, a few visitors walk down an asphalt path to a limestone pagoda, where they learn about animals no one ever will see alive.
The Passenger Pigeon Memorial is a museum piece and a modern reminder. It was erected as a birdhouse in 1875, two years after the zoo was founded. Ninety-nine years later, it was dedicated as a memorial to endangered species everywhere.
Along with the passenger pigeon, the pavilion was home to the world’s last Carolina parakeet, the only native parrot to breed in the continental United States. It too was hunted to extinction, and the last one, a male named Incas, died in 1918.
Zoo workers say the birds’ old home conveys a message to the modern world.
“The passenger pigeon is a memorial to what we let happen,” said Dave Jenike, the zoo’s assistant education director.
“To me, it’s not a historic landmark-even though it is. It’s an inspirational message to what we’re trying to do today.”
Visitors needn’t go far to see the point.
The zoo is home to more than 100 endangered species, including six that are alive only in captivity. It also is a leader in breeding programs to save endangered animals, such as the black rhinoceros.
It’s a mission the zoo has followed for more than a century, even with the passenger pigeon. Scientists tried to breed Martha, offering rewards up to $5,000 for a mate. Near the end they also tried in vain to breed her with other pigeon species.
In earlier years, no one perceived the need for such desperate measures. Who could imagine a species so numerous could go extinct?
The species was believed to be inexhaustible. Naturalist John James Audubon once recalled seeing a flock that took days to pass by overhead. In evenings the birds would crowd tree branches, sometimes breaking branches with their weight. The nesting colonies would cover hundreds of square miles.
The spectacle, almost impossible to imagine now, flabbergasted those who saw it. The birds awed James Fenimore Cooper, author of “The Last of the Mohicans,” who wrote of being reduced to silence by witnessing the work of the Creator.
The animal was tall and graceful, looking little like the urban pigeons of today. The male had streaks of blue, and the female had a cinnamon-rose-colored breast. It was up to 16 inches in length and could fly faster than a mile a minute.
The species got its name because of its mass migrations-it was a bird of passage. Its habitat ranged from Nova Scotia in Canada in the north, south to Florida and as far west as Texas. Flocks were reported near Lampasas, Texas, as late as 1883, and a few were seen in Corpus Christi, Texas, six years later.
But it’s all history now. All that remains for the curious is to examine a bronze statue of Martha near the memorial. They also can look at a few stuffed specimens of passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets. The memorial also includes Audubon prints, guns and hunting nets.
Scientists say both birds were hunted to death.
Carolina parakeets were shot for sport and captured as pets. The passenger pigeon was considered a delicacy, and meat hunters would gather squabs by the barrelful. Sportsmen also used the bird for trap shooting.
In the pigeon’s final years, hunters would be alerted to flocks by telegraph, and trains were chartered to take them to the site. The birds would be smoked out of the trees with fires.
Some farmers also caught the birds by blinding a pigeon and tying it to a stool. Its erratic motion would attract other birds, which would be netted en masse. Thus was born the term, stool pigeon.
By the late 1890s, the birds were mostly gone. The last one seen in the wild was shot by a boy near Sargents, Ohio. The specimen is on display at the memorial.
Martha herself was born in captivity at the zoo. In her final years, she was a popular animal, attracting tourists and ornithologists from around the world.
Finally, at 1 p.m. on Sept. 1, 1914, at the age of 29, she was found dead at the bottom of her cage. Her body was packed in ice and sent to the Smithsonian Institution. She remains on display on the first floor of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Nearly 80 years later, the species is a dim memory. But it returns to life, if only for a moment, at the memorial.
“It’s so hard to think that there were billions of them,” said Jason Abell, a 5th grader on a school field trip from Ft. Thomas, Ky. “Then it got down to the last one.”
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The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, 3400 Vine St., about 10 minutes north of downtown Cincinnati, is open 365 days a year. It is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the summer, until 5 p.m. from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Admission is $6.75 for visitors ages 13 to 61, $4.50 for seniors, $3.75 for children 2 to 12, free for children under 2. Parking is $4 a car. For more information, call the zoo at 513-281-4700.
The Passenger Pigeon Memorial and all other buildings at the zoo are handicapped-accessible, and all restrooms are equipped for the disabled. The zoo terrain is hilly but negotiable for disabled visitors.
