Editing Passenger pigeon (section)

===Last survivors===
{{See also|Martha (passenger pigeon)}}
[[File:Last known Passenger Pigeon.jpg|thumb|"Buttons", last confirmed wild passenger pigeon, [[Cincinnati Zoo]]]]

The last recorded nest and egg in the wild were collected in 1895 near Minneapolis. The last wild individual in Louisiana was discovered among a flock of mourning doves in 1896, and subsequently shot. Many late sightings are thought to be false or due to confusion with mourning doves.<ref name="Fuller 2014 50–69"/> The last fully authenticated record of a wild passenger pigeon was near [[Oakford, Illinois]], on March 12, 1901, when a male bird was killed, stuffed, and placed in [[Millikin University]] in [[Decatur, Illinois]], where it remains today. This was not discovered until 2014, when writer Joel Greenberg found out the date of the bird's shooting while doing research for his book ''A Feathered River Across the Sky.'' Greenberg also pointed out a record of a male shot near [[Laurel, Indiana]], on April 3, 1902, that was stuffed but later destroyed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Greenberg |first1=Joel |title=A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing |Bloomsbury USA]] |year=2014 |location=New York |isbn=978-1-62040-534-5}}</ref>

For many years, the last confirmed wild passenger pigeon was thought to have been shot near [[Sargents, Ohio|Sargents]], [[Pike County, Ohio]] on March 24, 1900, when a boy named Press Clay Southworth killed a female bird with a [[BB gun]].<ref name=SI/><ref name="Reeve">{{cite journal |last=Reeve |first=S. |title=Going Down in History |journal=Geographical |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=60{{ndash}}64 |date=March 2001 |issn=0016-741X}}</ref> The boy did not recognize the bird as a passenger pigeon, but his parents identified it, and sent it to a taxidermist. The specimen, nicknamed "Buttons" due to the buttons used instead of glass eyes, was donated to the [[Ohio Historical Society]] by the family in 1915. The reliability of accounts after the Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana birds are in question. Ornithologist [[Alexander Wetmore]] claimed that he saw a pair flying near [[Independence, Kansas]], in April 1905.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wetmore |first1=A. |title=Game Birds of Prairie, Forest and Tundra |date=October 1936 |page=495 |work=[[National Geographic (magazine) |National Geographic]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McKinley |first1=D. |year=1960 |title=A History of the Passenger Pigeon in Missouri |journal=Auk |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=399–420 |jstor=4082414 |doi=10.2307/4082414 |doi-access=free |url=https://sora.unm.edu/node/20911}}</ref> On May 18, 1907, U.S. President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] claimed to have seen a "flock of about a dozen two or three times on the wing" while on retreat at his cabin in Pine Knot, Virginia, and that they lit on a dead tree "in such a characteristically pigeon-like attitude"; this sighting was corroborated by a local gentleman whom he had "rambled around with in the woods a good deal" and whom he found to be "a singularly close observer."<ref>{{cite web |title=Theodore Roosevelt Signed Archive Passenger Pigeons {{!}} Raab Collection |website=The Raab Collection |language=en-US |url=https://www.raabcollection.com/presidential-autographs/roosevelt-pigeons |access-date=2023-03-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to C. Hart Merriam |website=theodorerooseveltcenter.org |url=https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record/ImageViewer?libID=o199420 |access-date=2023-03-12}}</ref> In 1910, the [[American Ornithologists' Union]] offered a reward of $3,000 for discovering a nest— {{Inflation|US|3000|1910|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}.{{inflation/fn|US}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Passenger Pigeon |website=South Dakota Game Fish & Parks |last1=Stukel |first1=E. D. |date=January–February 2005 |url=http://gfp.sd.gov/wildlife/critters/birds/passenger-pigeon.aspx |access-date=August 7, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=Reward for Wild Pigeons. Ornithologists Offer $3,000 for the Discovery of Their Nests |date=April 4, 1910 |place=Boston, Massachusetts |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/04/04/104928421.pdf |access-date=February 29, 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Passenger pigeon aviary.jpg|thumb|left|Whitman's aviary with passenger pigeons and other species, 1896/98]]

Most captive passenger pigeons were kept for exploitative purposes, but some were housed in zoos and aviaries. Audubon alone claimed to have brought 350 birds to England in 1830, distributing them among various noblemen, and the species is also known to have been kept at [[London Zoo]]. Being common birds, these attracted little interest, until the species became rare in the 1890s. By the turn of the 20th century, the last known captive passenger pigeons were divided in three groups; one in Milwaukee, one in Chicago, and one in Cincinnati. There are claims of a few further individuals having been kept in various places, but these accounts are not considered reliable today. The Milwaukee group was kept by David Whittaker, who began his collection in 1888, and possessed fifteen birds some years later, all descended from a single pair.<ref name="Extinct Birds"/><ref name="Fuller 2014 92–121"/>

The Chicago group was kept by [[Charles Otis Whitman]], whose collection began with passenger pigeons bought from Whittaker beginning in 1896. He had an interest in studying pigeons, and kept his passenger pigeons with other pigeon species. Whitman brought his pigeons with him from Chicago to Massachusetts by railcar each summer. By 1897, Whitman had bought all of Whittaker's birds, and upon reaching a maximum of 19 individuals, he gave seven back to Whittaker in 1898. Around this time, a series of photographs were taken of these birds; 24 of the photos survive. Some of these images have been reproduced in various media, copies of which are now kept at the [[Wisconsin Historical Society]]. It is unclear exactly where, when, and by whom these photos were taken, but some appear to have been taken in Chicago in 1896, others in Massachusetts in 1898, the latter by a J.&nbsp;G. Hubbard. By 1902, Whitman owned sixteen birds. His pigeons laid many eggs, but few hatched, and many hatchlings died. A newspaper inquiry was published that requested "fresh blood" to the flock which had now ceased breeding. By 1907, he was down to two female passenger pigeons that died that winter, and was left with two infertile male hybrids, whose subsequent fate is unknown. By this time, only four (all males) of the birds Whitman returned to Whittaker were alive, and these died between November 1908 and February 1909.<ref name="Fuller 2014 92–121">{{Harvnb|Fuller|2014|pp=92–121}}</ref><ref name="Rothschild">{{cite book |last=Rothschild |first=W. |author-link=Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild |title=Extinct Birds |publisher=[[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson & Co]] |year=1907 |location=London |pages=167{{ndash}}170 |url=https://archive.org/stream/extinctbirdsatte00roth#page/166/mode/2up}}</ref>

[[File:Hornaday Frontispiece.jpg|right|upright=1.5|thumb|"''The Folly of 1857 and the Lesson of 1912''", frontispiece to [[William Temple Hornaday|William T. Hornaday]]'s ''Our vanishing wild life'' (1913), showing [[Martha (passenger pigeon)|Martha]] in life, the [[endling]] of the species.]]
The Cincinnati Zoo, one of the oldest zoos in the United States, kept passenger pigeons from its beginning in 1875. The zoo kept more than twenty individuals in a {{convert|10|by|12|ft|m|adj=on|spell=in}} cage.<ref name="Fuller 2014 92–121"/> Passenger pigeons do not appear to have been kept at the zoo due to their rarity, but to enable guests to have a closer look at a native species.<ref name=Schorger28>{{Harvnb|Schorger|1955|p=28}}</ref> Recognizing the decline of the wild populations, Whitman and the Cincinnati Zoo consistently strove to breed the surviving birds, including attempts at making a rock dove foster passenger pigeon eggs.<ref>{{cite journal |last=D'Elia |first=J. |title=Evolution of Avian Conservation Breeding with Insights for Addressing the Current Extinction Crisis |journal=Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=189–210 |year=2010 |doi=10.3996/062010-JFWM-017 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2010JWFM....1..189D }}</ref> In 1902, Whitman gave a female passenger pigeon to the zoo; this was possibly the individual later known as Martha, which would become the last living member of the species. Other sources argue that Martha was hatched at the Cincinnati Zoo, lived there for 25 years, and was the descendant of three pairs of passenger pigeons purchased by the zoo in 1877. It is thought this individual was named Martha because her last cage mate was named George, thereby honoring [[George Washington]] and his wife [[Martha Washington|Martha]], though it has also been claimed she was named after the mother of a zookeeper's friends.<ref name="Fuller 2014 92–121"/><ref name=Schorger27>{{Harvnb|Schorger|1955|p=27}}</ref>

In 1909, Martha and her two male companions at the Cincinnati Zoo became the only known surviving passenger pigeons. One of these males died around April that year, followed by George, the remaining male, on July 10, 1910.<ref name=Schorger28/> It is unknown whether the remains of George were preserved. Martha soon became a celebrity due to her status as an [[endling]], and offers of a $1,000 reward ({{inflation|US|1000|1909|fmt=eq}}){{inflation/fn|US}} for finding a mate for her brought even more visitors to see her. During her last four years in solitude (her cage was {{convert|5.4|by|6|m|ft|abbr=on}}), Martha became steadily slower and more immobile; visitors would throw sand at her to make her move, and her cage was roped off in response.<ref name="Fuller 2014 92–121"/><ref name=Shell>{{cite journal |last=Shell |first=H. R. |title=The Face of Extinction |journal=[[Natural History (magazine) |Natural History]] |volume=113 |issue=4 |page=72 |date=May 2004 |issn=0028-0712}}</ref> Martha died of old age on September 1, 1914, and was found lifeless on the floor of her cage.<ref name=Shufeldt/><ref name=Schorger29>{{Harvnb|Schorger|1955|p=29}}</ref> It was claimed that she died at 1&nbsp;p.m., but other sources suggest she died some hours later.<ref name="Fuller 2014 92–121"/> Depending on the source, Martha was between 17 and 29 years old at the time of her death, although 29 is the generally accepted figure.<ref name=Schorger30>{{Harvnb|Schorger|1955|p=30}}</ref> At the time, it was suggested that Martha might have died from an [[apoplexy|apoplectic stroke]], as she had suffered one a few weeks before dying.<ref name=ElPaso>{{cite news |title=Last Passenger Pigeon Dies |newspaper=[[El Paso Times |El Paso Morning Times]] |location=El Paso, Texas |page=6 |date=September 14, 1914 |url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth197161/m1/6/zoom/}}</ref> Her body was frozen into a block of ice and sent to the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in Washington, where it was skinned, dissected, photographed, and mounted.<ref name=Shufeldt/><ref name=Yeoman>{{cite web |last1=Yeoman |first1=B. |title=Why the Passenger Pigeon Went Extinct |website=[[Audubon (magazine) |Audubon Magazine]] |year=2014 |url=https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2014/why-passenger-pigeon-went-extinct |access-date=October 8, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121163434/http://www.audubonmagazine.org/articles/birds/why-passenger-pigeon-went-extinct |archive-date=January 21, 2015}}</ref> As she was [[molting]] when she died, she proved difficult to stuff, and previously shed feathers were added to the skin. Martha was on display for many years, but after a period in the museum vaults, she was put back on display at the Smithsonian's [[National Museum of Natural History]] in 2015.<ref name="Fuller 2014 92–121"/> A memorial statue of Martha stands on the grounds of the Cincinnati Zoo, in front of the "Passenger Pigeon Memorial Hut", formerly the aviary wherein Martha lived, now a [[National Historic Landmark]]. Incidentally, the last specimen of the extinct [[Carolina parakeet]], named "Incus," died in Martha's cage in 1918; the stuffed remains of that bird are exhibited in the "Memorial Hut".<ref name="SI"/><ref name="r4">{{cite web |title=Martha – Passenger Pigeon Memorial Hut |location=Cincinnati, Ohio |website=[[Roadside America]] |url=https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10663 |access-date=February 29, 2012}}</ref>