The Passenger Pigeon (Iggy)
Songs & Audio
Not so long ago, there were literally billions of Passenger Pigeons. Sometimes two billion Passenger Pigeons would fly together – the largest flock was a mile (1.6 km) wide and 300 miles (500 km) long, which would take several days to pass over. It almost seemed impossible to think of a day when Passenger Pigeons would not be around. But gradually their numbers started to dwindle as thousands were killed at a time in great shoots.
Finally, there were only about a quarter of a million wild Passenger Pigeons left, which were all killed in a single day in 1896 by sport hunters, who knew they were shooting the last wild flock. Not surprisingly, on Infinity, Iggy, the last Passenger Pigeon, doesn’t like humans at all.
Story Role
Iggy helps show that even incredibly abundant species can vanish if humans exploit them carelessly.
Cause of Extinction
Did You Know?
Passenger pigeon flocks were enormous. Some flocks took hours to pass overhead.
They depended on large colonies. The birds struggled to breed successfully in small numbers.
Their extinction shocked scientists. Many people believed such abundant birds could never disappear.