\Martha\" the last passenger pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), who died Cincinnati Zoo, September 1st, 1914. This portrait of her published in March 1

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\Martha\" the last passenger pigeon, (Ectopistes migratorius), who died Cincinnati Zoo, September 1st, 1914. This portrait of her published in March 1915 as the Frontispiece to William Hornaday's \"The Statement of the Permanent Wild Life Protection Fund\" New York. The book was a pioneering self-published conservation document revealing the efforts to halt the further decline of birds in North America - which the passenger pigeon symbolised. The Book reveals The Fund's subscribers to include the car manufacturer Henry Ford and the photographic pioneer George Eastman. Hornaday was concerned by the threat of automatic weapons to birds. The passenger pigeon, which once numbered in the billions, had been wiped out by commercial collectors and hunters even before that time. Attempts to breed it in captivity proved that the birds needed the social facilitation of a large nesting colony to breed."

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Size: 3493px × 5003px
Photo credit: © PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1914, america, american, bird, breeding, captive, cincinnati, conservation, ectopistes, endangered, extinct, flock, hunting, martha, migratorius, migratory, passenger, picture, pigeon, portrait, zoo