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Contents 1 Quarter Million In Single Day? 2 Clone the poor thing already! 3 help please 4 Mating in flight 5 Archaeology 6 Population 7 Is it just me or does anyone else find the name of the parasites on the CO-EXTINCTION area to be really fake 7.1 Size, mass, coloration 7.2 Has any DNA been recovered?

[edit] Quarter Million In Single Day?

Do we have any citations for the line about the fact that the last 250,000 pidgeons were killed in a single day? I just don't see how its possible to kill ALL birds in a flock in one day.68.124.183.219 15:50, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Similarly, the story about the boy who shot the last passenger pigeon seems a myth to me. SG

Does anyone know (and care to infrom us) why exactly it is called the Passenger Pigeon? -- Steve

As migratory birds of passage. Wetman 18:42, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Aren't migratory and passage redundant together? Are other pigeons migratory? Also, not all migratory birds are called "Passenger". Why then the Passenger Pigeon? Hackwrench 04:15, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I read (somewhere) that the passenger pigeons only grew to such enormous numbers after white men came to North America and began cutting down the forests (something about better breeding grounds.) I don't know the details, does anyone? -- Zoe

It was in the few scattered remains of the forests that the very last flocks were exterminated. Ecologically, the replacement of forest by agriculture is loosely akin to extending prairie at the expense of forest. Wetman 18:42, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I have not heard that before, but I have never looked into the passenger pigeon in any detail. On the face of things, though, the suggestion has plausibility, at least if one reasons by analogy with some Australia birds (with which I am more familiar) that have become very much more numerous since European settlement: the galah, the budgie, several other parrot-family birds, the silver gull, and the magpie are examples. I think some of the inland pigeons are too, but I'd have to check that. Budgies form huge flocks - though doubtless much smaller than those of the passenger pigeon. The causes of the Oz increases are (a) increase in grass & croplands instead of forest, (b) availability of permanent water in the red centre, (c) human interference with predator species such as the peregrine falcon. Still, broadly speaking, the increases in the Australian species I've mentioned are a matter of degree: they were all very common birds before the Europeans arrived, and the main effect seems to have been an increase in their range, rather than of their density within an existing range. Tannin

Re: Zoe -The Passenger Pigeon declined rapidly when European settlers cut down the majestic old-growth stands of oak trees that covered much of the eastern U.S.: it did not grow to enormous numbers when they were cut, it precipitated their decline. Acorns provided an important staple of the Passenger Pigeon's diet, and the oak trees gave them nesting places for their colonies. The loss of acorns as forage food also drove their extinction, not just hunting for food. Any Passenger Pigeon article is incomplete without detailing thier relationship with American oak forests. --208.31.88.136 22:14, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Is there some good reason why passenger pigeon is capitalized here? - Vague Rant 07:34, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)

Yes, bird species are always capitalised on Wikipedia, with a lower case redirect. This a long standing convention and is in line with much current practice, especially, but not exclusively, outside N America. There are probably about 2000 bird species' articles on Wikipedia, all are capitalised. jimfbleak 14:06, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Clone the poor thing already!

Couldn't someone take a feather from the stuffed bird, extract the DNA, and clone it? Wouldn't that be monumental? Wadsworth 18:03, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Feathers are like hair, composed of dead cells. In spite of fictional treatments, material from hair or feathers can't be cloned due to the actual nature of cloning. More likely if some bones that still have marrow could be found, or if the specimens still have muscle material. Realize though that cloning technology still hasn't reached the point of resurecting a whole bird or mammal from such specialized DNA. CFLeon 04:58, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Shoot! I wish they could...:( --Mitternacht90 16:49, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Not the least problem is how to get any cloned DNA inside an egg... Dysmorodrepanis 05:07, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] help please

i have a question how did the arival of the europeans efect the poupltion of passengers pigions in canda????????????

help

from jake ps.... sup?

Europeans shot them all, so I suppose that had some effect on their extinction. :-) StuRat 04:04, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mating in flight

I had heard that they mated in flight, hence the male was a "passenger". Is this true ? StuRat 16:31, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Nope. Birds are technically unable to mate and at the same time keep their balance in flight (because they have to twist their tails to one side. Except the hihi which likes it the missionary way, but they still do that on the ground, which is a major drawback if cats are around). Dysmorodrepanis 05:07, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Archaeology

Well, there are some refs (and more will be upcoming maybe) on prehistoric PP finds, BUT this begs a major question: what happened to the roosts? I mean, they must have been massive! Does anybody known of any research regarding former roost sites? All that I know is that prehistoric finds (subfossils and fossils) of PPs are so rare it's really shocking. There must be entire mounds of bones around - but where? Us this species something that had a fringe existence until humans (Native Americans in this case) started to modify the landscape, providing it with habitat? When did it evolve its unique lifestyle? Questions over questions - for such an emblematic bird, astoundingly little certain is known about its life history! Dysmorodrepanis 05:07, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Population

If there was a population of 5 billion, and a flock of 2 billion, was almost half of the population really in one flock? Philc _T^E_C^I 19:19, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

• I also think that's a bit hard to swallow. AOB 14:32, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is it just me or does anyone else find the name of the parasites on the CO-EXTINCTION area to be really fake

"Columbicola extinctus" LOL extinctus sounds like made up latin and if it isnt made up it would have had to already been extinct before scientists discovered it in order for it to be named that, which just doesnt seem very logical to me

without citations i think it should be deleted

Does this count as a good citation? SeanAhern 16:26, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

I think the IP was talking about the name of the speices -- and to that, all I can say is that, you know, English is partly and inheriotr of Latin, so just because a word looks and awful lot like the English equivalent doesn't mean it's made-up. Lenoxus " * " 19:22, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Size, mass, coloration

Why is there nothing in the entry about the average size of the Passenger Pigeon, its wingspan, observed colorations, etc? There's nothing in the article, at this time, that explains what distinguished them from the modern common pigeons we're familiar with, other than that they were hunted to extinction. I've heard that they were much larger birds, but there's nothing in this entry that verifies or refutes that, and I'm really very surprised because those seem like they should be basic starter facts for an article like this. -- Lara

Well there's a good chance citations of this nature don't exist, it didn't go extinct in 1996, 'recently extinct' is a broad term after all. So there wasn't really ever extreamly detailed studise

There is voluminous information on the Passenger Pigeon in the ornithological literature, including measurements from specimens--somebody just needs to add it. This has been on my "to do" list for a while, just like a lot of things. I'll try to make some additions in the next few days, but that should not stop anyone else with access to good information! --Cotinis 14:08, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Has any DNA been recovered?

Just wondering. Esn 07:14, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

See above secion. Lenoxus " * " 19:23, 29 March 2007 (UTC)