This absorbing book is an engaging and wistful, yet measured, chronicle about the tragic loss of one very special, iconic, species, the passenger pigeon.
This is the year of the passenger pigeon. Despite this, you might wonder how three books about the passenger pigeon could possibly have been published this year -- and, iconic or not, what more could possibly be said about an extinct species one hundred years on? Yet each book brings something new to the table. But my favourite of this trio passenger pigeon books is Mark Averys A Message from Martha: The Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon and its Relevance Today [Bloomsbury Natural History, 2014; Guardian bookshop; Amazon UK hardcover/paperback; Amazon US hardcover/kindle US]. Written by a British scientist and conservationist, this book discusses the passenger pigeons life and extinction in roughly three parts: first, the author explores the birds life history, second, the author goes on a road trip in America to discover and experience for himself this species former haunts, and third, the author identifies the lessons that we have (supposedly) learned from the passenger pigeons extinction and applies them to current conservation problems at home in Britain.
Of ... 130 extinct birds, most (85%) have lived (and died) on oceanic islands, and only around 19 have been continental species. The usual CV for an extinct bird includes terms such as flightless, island-dwelling and range restricted -- none of which applies to the Passenger Pigeon [sic]. And the loss of the Passenger Pigeon [sic] from the Earth removed more individual birds than did all the other 129 extinctions put together. By any measure, this was an exceptional extinction. [p. 168]
As we lose nature from the world around us it is like removing pieces of music from our lives. When a species declines then the volume of that piece is turned down and the sound is distorted. When extinction happens the music is silenced forever. I want nature in my life like I want music in my life. I dont expect to come up with an economic justification for the presence of music, and nor do I for nature. When we lost the Passenger Pigeon, a signature species, we lost a major symphony. I am tempted to say Beethovens Seventh, but given the number of voices we lost with the Passenger Pigeon it might have been the Ninth. [p. 236]
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