The Passenger pigeon was a beautiful bird but with a tragic flaw in it's reproduction cycle. It mated in the air in huge swirling flocks so copulation was a hit or miss thing. Their reproductive efficiency was very low. when the flocks dropped below a certain level they could not sustain their population levels. They were regarded as "trash birds" anyway.
Neither could they coexist with modern agriculture. I have seen prints of farmers desperately trying to kill the birds eating their year's crop. They were worse then locusts.
Farmers did everything they could to kill,trap,net or otherwise get rid of them.
Ecology is a two edged sword. One man's meat so to speak. Anybody every heard of kudzu?
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