RIP Martha, Sept. 1 1914
Martha, died 94 years ago today at the Cincinnati zoo. The last of over a billion birds that once roamed America.
Treehugger says she's stuffed but not on display at the Smithsonian.
From RoadsideAmerica;
Martha spent her last years in the Cincinnati Zoo, in a pagoda aviary that has been restored. It's an official National Historic Landmark... Perched on a rock in front of the hut is a life-size bronze likeness of Martha. Also here is the stuffed carcass of the last Carolina Parakeet, "Incus," who died in this same aviary in 1918, four years after Martha. That makes this place a uniquely bad spot in the history of bird extermination.
[where:3400 Vine St Cincinnati, OHio 45202]cincinnati ohio downtowncomments?
Somebody with a cruel sense of humor might say something like, 'well you know they were quite tasty with a hollandaise sauce'
ReplyDeleteIt's kinda hard to imagine thousands of those colorful parakeets in the Mill Creek Valley. But that is what the first settlers reported.
ReplyDeleteI actually remember reading that and being moved by that. I was in Puerto Rico last week for vacation thought about this very bird.
ReplyDeleteWe watched a video about El Yunque National park...
A century ago, there used to be thousands of Puerto Rican Parakeets. Between human settlement on the island and tropical storms, the number went down to like a dozen in the last decade. It's sad to think of any speices being exterminated.