On this day in vegan history · September 1, 1914
The Last Passenger Pigeon Dies at the Cincinnati Zoo
Martha had outlived every wild flock and every mate offered a $1,000 reward, and when she finally died alone in her cage, a species that had once numbered in the billions simply stopped existing.
The facts
- Date
- September 1, 1914, 1 p.m., Cincinnati Zoo
- Age
- Between 17 and 29 years old; 29 is the generally accepted figure
- Named for
- Martha Washington
- Remains
- Frozen in ice, sent by train to the Smithsonian, arrived September 4, 1914
Martha was the last known passenger pigeon on Earth, living out her final years alone in a cage at the Cincinnati Zoo after her two male companions died. A stroke had already left her too weak to reach her old roost, so the zoo built her a lower one. On September 1, 1914, at 1 p.m., she died of old age, and keepers found her body lifeless on the cage floor; she was somewhere between 17 and 29 years old, with 29 the figure most sources accept. Her body was frozen into a block of ice and shipped by train to the Smithsonian, where she arrived three days later, was photographed, and was skinned for permanent display. A species that had once numbered in the billions ended, officially, with one bird's ordinary death.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
Martha died at 1 p.m. on September 1, 1914, of old age.
Wikipedia, article "Martha (passenger pigeon)"
Source: Wikipedia -
an organic monument, biologically continuous with the living bird she commemorates, the embodiment of extinction itself
An unnamed Harvard historian, as quoted in the Wikipedia article on Martha the passenger pigeon
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Martha turned extinction from an abstraction into a single dated, witnessed event, and her preserved body still sits in the Smithsonian as literal proof of what humans can end. She is a standing reminder that abundance is not the same as permanence, for any species we assume will always be there.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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