"1956 to 1999. During this time she left the Smithsonian twice—in 1966 to be displayed at the Zoological Society of San Diego's Golden Jubilee Conservation Conference, and in June 1974 to the Cincinnati Zoo for the dedication of the Passenger Pigeon Memorial. When the Smithsonian shut down its Birds of the World exhibit, Martha was removed from display and kept in a special exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha was back on display in the Smithsonian from June 2014 to September 2015 for the exhibit ""Once There Were Billions"". Martha has become a symbol of the threat of extinction. She"
"He did so on at least two occasions; in 1903 he drew a bird possibly in one of the three aviaries with surviving birds, and some time before 1914, he drew Martha, the last individual, in the Cincinnati Zoo. The bird has been written about (including in poems, songs, and fiction) and illustrated by many notable writers and artists, and is depicted in art to this day, for example in Walton Ford's 2002 painting ""Falling Bough"", and National Medal of Arts winner John A. Ruthven's 2014 mural in Cincinnati, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of Martha's death. The centennial of"
"was used at the Zoological Society of San Diego's 1966 Golden Jubilee Conservation Conference as a mascot to emphasize the need for conservation. A Harvard historian has described Martha's remains as ""an organic monument, biologically continuous with the living bird she commemorates, the embodiment of extinction itself."" Many authors writing about extinction have made what one described as a ""strange pilgrimage"" to see her remains. John Herald, a bluegrass singer, wrote a song dedicated to Martha and the extinction of the passenger pigeon that he titled ""Martha (Last of the Passenger Pigeons)"". Martha (passenger pigeon) Martha (c. 1885 – September"
"known to humanity in the early nineteenth century, when the bird's population was estimated at about five billion. By the early 20th century, due to overhunting and habitat destruction brought about by the timber industry, the species had become extinct, the last passenger pigeon having died in the Cincinnati Zoo. The passenger pigeon became extinct in under a century and was just one of the many victims of the myth of superabundance. Likewise, the American buffalo was threatened by the myth of superabundance. They were considered to be the largest and most valuable resource because just about every piece of"
"seven years later, in 1866, one flock in southern Ontario was described as being wide and long, took 14 hours to pass, and held in excess of 3.5 billion birds. Such a number would likely represent a large fraction of the entire population at the time, or perhaps all of it. Most estimations of numbers were based on single migrating colonies, and it is unknown how many of these existed at a given time. American writer Christopher Cokinos has suggested that if the birds flew single file, they would have stretched around the earth 22 times. A 2014 genetic study"
"Institution in Washington, where it was skinned, dissected, photographed, and mounted. As she was molting when she died, she proved difficult to stuff, and previously shed feathers were added to the skin. Martha was on display for many years, but after a period in the museum vaults, she was put back on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 2015. A memorial statue of Martha stands on the grounds of the Cincinnati Zoo, in front of the ""Passenger Pigeon Memorial Hut"", formerly the aviary wherein Martha lived, now a National Historic Landmark. Incidentally, the last specimen of"
"all descended from the same pair, was kept by Whitman at the University of Chicago. The last attempt to breed the remaining specimens was done by Whitman and the Cincinnati Zoo, which included attempts at making a rock dove foster Passenger Pigeon eggs. Whitman sent Martha, which was to be the last known specimen, to Cincinnati Zoo in 1902. In December 1910, however, he caught a chill and died a few days later. Whitman was a non-Darwinian evolutionist. Stephen Jay Gould wrote that Whitman did not believe in Lamarckism, Darwinism or mutationism, instead Whitman was an advocate of orthogenesis. Whitman"
"the extinct Carolina parakeet, named ""Incus,"" died in Martha's cage in 1918; the stuffed remains of that bird are exhibited in the ""Memorial Hut"". The main reasons for the extinction of the passenger pigeon were the massive scale of hunting, the rapid loss of habitat, and the extremely social lifestyle of the bird, which made it highly vulnerable to the former factors. Deforestation was driven by the need to free land for agriculture and expanding towns, but also due to the demand for lumber and fuel. About 728,000 km (180 million acres) were cleared for farming between 1850 and 1910."
"the oldest living specimen of her species, until her death in 2007. Another notable resident was Carlita, a 21-year-old female white Bengal tiger, who resided in the zoo's tiger enclosure from 1994 until her death in 2014. The American Banker's Family Aviary, Wings of Asia is also located here. The aviary features 300 rare birds of 70 species in a temperate mixed forest, and it highlights the evolutionary connection of birds to dinosaurs. At , it is the largest open-air Asian aviary in the Western Hemisphere. The Children's Zoo, hosts special animals that can be approached to a close distance"
"of the species was abrupt; in 1871, a breeding colony was estimated to contain over a hundred million birds, yet the last individual in the species was dead by 1914. Although habitat loss was a contributing factor, the species is thought to have been massively over-hunted, being used as food for slaves and, later, the poor, in the United States throughout the 19thcentury. The dodo, and its extinction, was more typical of the extinctions of pigeons in the past. Like many species that colonise remote islands with few predators, it lost much of its predator avoidance behaviour, along with its"
"a very gregarious bird, noted for its loud, continuous calling. While the bird was normally cautious, avoiding contact with humans, this lessened while feeding. As the bird often fed in farmers' field upon crops such as maize, this contributed to its widespread hunting. The last bird was seen in 1882, by W. W. Brown, who collected the specimen which now resides at the Field Museum in Chicago. The date of extinction is not well recorded. It was referred to as still being extant in 1905, but reported as extinct in 1950. Hunting by humans is believed to be the primary"
"the giant moa (""Dinornis maximus""), part of the moa family of New Zealand that went extinct around 1500 AD. This particular species of moa stood up to tall, but weighed about half as much as a large elephant bird or mihirung due to its comparatively slender frame. The heaviest bird ever capable of flight was ""Argentavis magnificens"", the largest member of the now extinct family Teratornithidae, found in Miocene-aged fossil beds of Argentina, with a wingspan up to , a length of up to , a height on the ground of up to and a body weight of at least"
"of a migratory fallout, as well as the abundance of birds resting in a single location, it is a sought-after event for birders. There can be some significant consequences due to birds encountering severe weather during their migratory flyway. Late arrival to their destination can lead to a delay in reproduction, or a higher mortality rate. Due to the large number of birds resting, a lack of shelter and food becomes a large concern for the survival and propagation to the wintering destination. The most notable incident occurred on 25 April 2013, where 294 species of birds were recorded as"
"it may not be necessary to conserve mounts or skins of commonly occurring animals beyond educational use, some taxidermy mounts represent extinct or critically endangered species. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History houses Martha, the last passenger pigeon and a some collections still have Great Auk specimens, a bird species that went extinct in 1844. As with other types of collections, taxidermy specimens are susceptible to agents of deterioration, including pests, lights, temperature, humidity, and custodial neglect. Improper storage, display, and handling of taxidermy specimens can lead to many of these causes of deterioration. Pests, such as dermestid beetles,"
"Teratornithidae Teratornithidae is an extinct family of very large birds of prey that lived in North and South America from the Late Oligocene to Late Pleistocene. They include some of the largest known flying birds. Teratornithidae are related to New World vultures (Cathartidae, syn. Vulturidae). So far, at least seven species in six genera have been identified: Some cryptozoologists such as Ken Gerhard, and Mark A. Hall have expressed interest in teratorns as a possible explanation of anecdotal sightings of very large birds in Texas and Illinois and popularly known as Thunderbirds. Despite their size, there is little doubt that"
"or eleven remaining specimens and one or two eggs in museums (e.g. in Leiden, New York, Liverpool and London). It apparently became extinct in the 1870s due to predation by introduced species such as rats and feral cats. Additionally, it was noted to taste good and seems to have been hunted for food. Reed (1980) reported the testimony of a local who claimed the bird to be extinct since 1907. However, there were unconfirmed sightings in upland rainforest in 1984 (August 22 and 23), and 2003, and in the latter year, a deep, gulping call ""ooh-ooh-ooh"" call was heard to"
"of the 113th United States Congress. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA), codified at , is a United States federal law, first enacted in 1916 in order to implement the convention for the protection of migratory birds between the United States and Great Britain (acting on behalf of Canada). The statute makes it unlawful without a waiver to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell birds listed therein (""migratory birds""). The statute does not discriminate between live or dead birds and also grants full protection to any bird parts including feathers, eggs and nests. Over 800 species are"
"the 1870s, a combination of increased population and economic scarcity led to over-hunting and eventual extinction. The massive flocks of passenger pigeons stopped darkening the skies of Northern Michigan, especially after the last large scale nestings and subsequent slaughters of millions of birds in 1874 and 1878. By this time, large nestings only took place in the north, around the Great Lakes. The last large nesting was in Petoskey, Michigan, in 1878 (following one in Pennsylvania a few days earlier), where 50,000 birds were killed each day for nearly five months. The surviving adults attempted a second nesting at new"
"size. Total length was probably up to in female and they weighed about . The largest extinct ""Titanohierax"" was a giant hawk about 8 kilograms that lived in the Antilles, where it was among the top predators. The largest-known in this group was a giant flightless ""Sylviornis"", a bird long and weighing up to about . The largest-known songbird is the extinct giant grosbeak (""Chloridops regiskongi"") at long. The largest-known cormorant was the spectacled cormorant of the North Pacific (""Phalacrocorax perspicillatus""), which became extinct around 1850, was larger still, averaging around and . The largest-known in this group—which has been"
"sea-level rise. Category 3 Hurricane Fabian destroyed about 15 nesting burrows in 2003, and damage to most of the remainder required urgent repair and construction of replacement burrows. In 2010, Hurricane Igor caused further extensive damage to nest burrows on the original islets, and in 2014, Category 2 Hurricane Gonzalo, a late-season hurricane, killed 5 nesting pairs that had already returned on the smaller nesting islets. The global population of this bird in 2015 was about 300 individuals. A cahow was seen off the west coast of Ireland in May 2014, the furthest the species has ever been seen from"
"Hubbard. By 1902, Whitman owned sixteen birds. Many eggs were laid by his pigeons, but few hatched, and many hatchlings died. A newspaper inquiry was published that requested ""fresh blood"" to the flock which had now ceased breeding. By 1907, he was down to two female passenger pigeons that died that winter, and was left with two infertile male hybrids, whose subsequent fate is unknown. By this time, only four (all males) of the birds Whitman had returned to Whittaker were alive, and these died between November 1908 and February 1909. The Cincinnati Zoo, one of the oldest zoos in"
"May and July. Some winged insects such as locusts and certain butterflies and dragonflies with strong flight migrate long distances. Among the dragonflies, species of ""Libellula"" and ""Sympetrum"" are known for mass migration, while ""Pantala flavescens"", known as the globe skimmer or wandering glider dragonfly, makes the longest ocean crossing of any insect, between India and Africa. Exceptionally, swarms of the desert locust, ""Schistocerca gregaria"", flew westwards across the Atlantic Ocean for 4500 km during October 1988, using air currents in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. In some migratory butterflies, such as the monarch butterfly and the painted lady, no individual"
"succumbed to extinction. Among the ten species to have become extinct since 1600 (the conventional date for estimating modern extinctions) are two of the most famous extinct species, the dodo and the passenger pigeon. The passenger pigeon was exceptional for a number of reasons. In modern times, it is the only pigeon species that was not an island species to have become extinct even though it was once the most numerous species of bird on Earth. Its former numbers are difficult to estimate, but one ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, estimated one flock he observed contained over two billion birds. The decline"
"larger than humans, disappeared, and many of the smaller species disappeared too. All told, about 60 different vertebrates became extinct, including the Diprotodon family (very large marsupial herbivores that looked rather like hippos), several large flightless birds, carnivorous kangaroos, ""Wonambi naracoortensis"", a 5-metre snake, a five-metre lizard and ""Meiolania"", a tortoise the size of a small car. The direct cause of the mass extinctions is uncertain: it may have been fire, hunting, climate change or a combination of all or any of these factors, although the rapid decline of many species is still a matter of dispute. With no large"
"the kokako, black robin, Mariana crow, and the Hawaiian duck. Humans have exploited birds for a very long time, and sometimes this exploitation has resulted in extinction. Overhunting occurred in some instances with a naive species unfamiliar with humans, such as the moa of New Zealand, in other cases it was an industrial level of hunting that led to extinction. The passenger pigeon was once the most numerous species of bird alive (possibly ever), overhunting reduced a species that once numbered in the billions to extinction. Hunting pressure can be for food, sport, feathers, or even come from scientists collecting"
"Dinornis The giant moa (""Dinornis"") is an extinct genus of birds belonging to the moa family. Like all Moas it was a member of the order Dinornithiformes. It was endemic to New Zealand. Two species of ""Dinornis"" are considered valid, ""Dinornis novaezealandiae"" of the North Island, and ""Dinornis robustus"" of the South. In addition, two further species (new lineage A and lineage B) have been suggested based on distinct DNA lineages. ""Dinornis"" may have been the tallest bird that ever lived, with the females of the largest species standing tall, and one of the most massive, weighing or in various"
"surviving passenger pigeons. One of these males died around April that year, followed by George, the remaining male, on July 10, 1910. It is unknown whether the remains of George were preserved. Martha soon became a celebrity due to her status as an endling, and offers of a $1,000 reward for finding a mate for her brought even more visitors to see her. During her last four years in solitude (her cage was ), Martha became steadily slower and more immobile; visitors would throw sand at her to make her move, and her cage was roped off in response. Martha"
"completes the whole migration. Instead the butterflies mate and reproduce on the journey, and successive generations travel the next stage of the migration. Mass migration occurs in mammals such as the Serengeti 'great migration', an annual circular pattern of movement with some 1.7 million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of other large game animals including gazelles and zebra. A literature survey in 2009 found more than 20 species which engage, or used to engage, in mass migrations. Of these migrations, those of the springbok, black wildebeest, blesbok, scimitar-horned oryx, and kulan have ceased. Migration is important in cetaceans, including whales,"
"the ability to fly for extended periods, although their ancestral species, the red junglefowl and mallard, respectively, are capable of extended flight. A few particularly bred birds, such as the Broad Breasted White turkey, have become totally flightless as a result of selective breeding; the birds were bred to grow massive breast meat that weighs too much for the bird's wings to support in flight. Flightlessness has evolved in many different birds independently. There were also other families of flightless birds, such as the now extinct Phorusrhacidae, that evolved to be powerful terrestrial predators. Taking this to a greater extreme,"
"breeding programs in its history, and was the first to successfully breed California sea lions. In 1986, the Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) was created to further the zoo's goal of conservation. The zoo is known for being the home of Martha, the last living passenger pigeon, and to Incas, the last living Carolina parakeet. The zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), and a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). A 2014 ranking of the nations's best zoos by ""USA Today"" based on data"
"Phorusrhacidae Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are an extinct clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were the largest species of apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era; their temporal range covers from 62 to 1.8 million years (Ma) ago. They ranged in height from tall. Their closest modern-day relatives are believed to be the seriemas. ""Titanis walleri"", one of the larger species, is known from Texas and Florida in North America. This makes the phorusrhacids the only known large South American predator to migrate north in the Great American Interchange that followed the formation of the"
"Argentavis Argentavis magnificens was among the largest flying birds ever to exist, quite possibly surpassed in wingspan only by ""Pelagornis sandersi"", which was described in 2014 . ""A. magnificens"", sometimes called the giant teratorn, is an extinct species known from three sites in the Epecuén and Andalhuala Formations in central and northwestern Argentina dating to the Late Miocene (Huayquerian), where a good sample of fossils has been obtained. The single known humerus (upper arm bone) specimen of ""Argentavis"" is somewhat damaged. Even so, it allows a fairly accurate estimate of its length in life. ""Argentavis"" humerus was only slightly shorter"
"the terror birds (and their relatives the bathornithids), eogruids, geranoidids, gastornithiforms, and dromornithids (all extinct) all evolved similar body shapes – long legs, long necks and big heads – but none of them were closely related. Furthermore, they also share traits of being giant, flightless birds with vestigial wings, long legs, and long necks with some of the ratites, although they are not related. Divergences and losses of flight within ratite lineage occurred right after the K-Pg extinction event wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and large vertebrates 66 million years ago. The immediate evacuation of niches following the mass extinction"