“Unveiling the Enigma: How Mermaids May Hold Secrets to One of History’s Swiftest Extinctions”
In 1857, a bill was presented to the Ohio State legislature, but was quickly dismissed. A report was filed that read,
The passenger pigeon needs no protection. Wonderfully prolific, having the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds, traveling hundreds of miles in search of food, it is here today and elsewhere tomorrow.
A huge nesting area was found in Petoskey, Michigan in 1878. Trappers flocked there and, according to the Smithsonian, over a five month period 50,000 birds per day were killed. This turned out to be one of the last large nesting areas in North America. As this fact became apparent, a bill was finally passed making it illegal to trap pigeons within two miles of their nesting area.
By 1890, the wild passenger pigeon was nearly completely eradicated. In 1897, the Michigan state legislature passed a bill putting a ten year ban on the killing of passenger pigeons. But it was too late. Seventeen years later, the last known living passenger pigeon would die alone in her cage. This bird, Martha, had once been part of a pair, with her male counterpart George, but he had died several years before. So, for the final years of her life, Martha sat in her one-bird cage alone. The Cincinnati Zoo offered a thousand dollar reward (about $30,000 today) to anyone who could track down a mate for Martha. Unfortunately, all her kind were dead. On September 1, 1914, Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Just like that, a bird that numbered in the many billions about a half century before, was gone.
