It's fascinating that we made the passenger pigeon extinct using guns only. Though if nets and traps were involved, that's less interesting: I don't know.
Most bullets miss, so a tremendous number of bullets (bird shot) must have been used.
Deforestation is also stated as a contributing cause, but we still have vast areas of forested land, so not necessarily extinction.
A species which relies on strength in numbers probably breeds very quickly.
Possibly a foreshadowing of overfishing. What animals have filled the ecological niche formerly occupied by the passenger pigeon? Were there terrible ecological consequences caused by the extinction?
If humans can drive a very numerous species to extinction by surprisingly "brute" low-tech means, not even a coordinated effort, perhaps others can be done in, too: mosquito, HPV, H. pylori, HIV, many other diseases. Of course, these could have worse ecological consequences.
No comments :
Post a Comment