The Passenger Pigeon.....

[OH Osthaus]

seems to be a lot of interest

even The Field - a British sporting magazine - had an article about the demise of the Passenger Pigeon in the USA - in the last issue

[Tom McCoy]

Originally Posted by Eric Grims

Later in the day I had a reception elsewhere to go to and there I got talking about the day. I was surprised and bummed that about half the folks I mentioned this to had not heard of the story of this bird.

Unfortunately, so many tree hungers "educate" themselves by LISTENING to opinions and trumped up statistics from others. very few would ever take the time to research and seek data to educate themselves independently as Eric did. I find that few are educated beyond the attitude that all hunting is bad.
These are the same elitists that look at us hunters with contempt.

Educated, sane conversations, apparently like Eric had at the reception, will hopefully progress some individuals to look further into the conservation that hunters provide through significant financial support, and habitat restoration and conservation. We should all take the time to intelligently engage the sane tree hungers to educate them further.

Sorry for preaching to the choir here, but living in the suburbs of Atlanta I am constantly reminded how many people actually think hunting in any form should be banned forever.... Along with all guns. Ruffed Grouse hunting in Georgia is almost non existent now that the tree huggers successfully banned all logging in our national forest of 867,000 acres back in the 90's.
The over hunting of the Passenger Pigeon is a disgrace, but I have to believe the extinction had more to do with habitat destruction.


Kudos Eric for taking the time.

Tom
Atlanta

[Robert Delk]

Habitat destruction. You can search the internet and see pictures of the unbelievable amount of logging that went on in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Michigan,New York,Pennsylvania,Appalachia,etc, were all stripped of their old growth hardwood timber to build America.The passenger pigeon was doomed by living in the wrong time and place.The same thing is still going on in a much smaller scale with many of our songbirds.No habitat left.