Passenger Pigeons – Lessons from the Past AN EXHIBIT FEATURING INFORMATIVE PANELS, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR ARTWORKS AND ORIGAMI On display at The Audubon Center at Riverlands: August 1 – 30, 2014
On the 100th anniversary of one of history's most numerous birds becoming extinct, conservationists hope to help prevent other common species at risk from following the same path.
Huge flocks of Passenger Pigeons once flew across the skies. Millions of birds would pass overhead, blocking the sun and darkening the sky for days.Because there were so many, no one dreamed they could ever be gone.But as the population of the United States grew, and demand for food increased, they were nearly all killed by hunters.On March 24th, 1900, a boy in Pike County, Ohio shot the last recorded wild Passenger Pigeon.Fourteen years later, in 1914, the last captive Passenger Pigeon, Martha, died in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo.
The story of the Passenger Pigeon extinction reminds us that sometimes the natural world is more fragile than we think. *
ACTUAL PASSENGER PIGEON MOUNT on loan from Adolphus Busch IV The Center is proud to display an actual passenger pigeon mount.The 100-year old case includes a mounted Gambel’s Quail, Passenger Pigeon and American Woodcock.
PROJECT PASSENGER PIGEON The Center will feature exhibit panels from Project Passenger Pigeon.By focusing on this remarkable bird's heyday and demise, Project Passenger Pigeon's organizers hope to call attention to animals currently at risk, including 11 species of endangered crane, the whale shark, and the little brown bat, which could disappear from the eastern United States within the next 15 years. "I believe in teachable moments," says David Blockstein, senior scientist at the National Council for Science and the Environment. "One of the real dangers we have in the conservation area is each generation's ratcheting down of our knowledge and expectations. You go out in a migration and say, 'Boy, this is great. I saw so many warblers today.' But if you had been there 50 years ago, what you see today is a just small percentage of that. The centenary is a way to try to ratchet back up expectations of what wild America can be."
PASSENGER PIGEON – LESSONS FROM THE PAST Sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation and the St. Louis Audubon Society Art is an amazing gift that can be used as a bridge to educate and inspire people about the natural world.The Missouri Department of Conservation and the St. Louis Audubon Society are cosponsoring an art show for local artists to paint their rendition of the now extinct Passenger Pigeon.Artwork from several local artists will be on display at the Center during the month of August.Come by the Center and vote for their favorite piece.For more information, click here.
Fold the Flock To remember the Passenger Pigeon, we are folding origami pigeons to recreate the great flocks.Drop by the Center and fold an origami Passenger Pigeon. Fold the Flock is an initiative of The Lost Bird Project.
* Foldtheflock.org
Hear Joel Greenberg, author of "A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction" speak *August 18 at the STL Zoo, Anheuser-Busch Theater. 7:30-9:00pm. Free. visit stlzoo.org for more information
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