The passenger pigeon was probably once the most abundant land bird of North America. Slaughtered to oblivion by many methods including dynamiting nesting colonies, netting, clubbing, cutting of forest and nest trees and firearms. Forest fragmentation reduced the area needed for nesting and food; continuous cooing in the colony was needed to initiate and synchronize breeding, only 1-2 eggs being laid each season. Only several hundred specimens exist in the world today, testifying that opportunistic preservation of all species is of scientific merit when opportunity exists. DNA material could be obtained from these specimens!

The history that this species and specimens represent conveys to me a deep sense of tragedy – the species is now extinct, the last living one dying a lonely death in the Cincinnati Zoological Park in 1914. What the museum visitor sees here is all that can be seen to remind us never to take our natural resources for granted. These specimens, some of the oldest Science Museum’s collections, are priceless and irreplaceable.
– Dick Oehlenschlager, Biology