RIP Martha, Sept. 1 1914

Martha, died 104 years ago today at the Cincinnati Zoo. The last of over a billion birds that once roamed America.

The New York Times NATHANIEL RICH wrote about Martha and he said;

"On Sept. 1, 1914, Martha, the last captive passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. She outlasted George, the penultimate survivor of her species and her only companion, by four years. As news spread of her species’ imminent extinction, Martha became a minor tourist attraction. In her final years, whether depressed or just old, she barely moved. Underwhelmed zoo visitors threw fistfuls of sand at her to elicit a reaction. When she finally died, her body was taken to the Cincinnati Ice Company, frozen in a 300-pound ice cube and shipped by train to the Smithsonian Institution..."

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.

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