Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Last Passenger Pigeon, September 1, 1914

  The Passenger Pigeon was once probably the most numerous bird on earth. Population estimates from the 19th century ranged from between one and four billion. But on September 1,1914, the last Passenger Pigeon, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. The Zoo’s Director Thane Maynard and Dan Marsh, director of Education, sat down to talk about the passenger pigeon, what caused the bird’s extinction, and Martha, whose statue is seen by thousands of zoo visitors each year.

In January of this year, Thane Maynard spoke to Joel Greenburg, author of A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction. You can hear that interview by clicking here: Thane and Joel Greenburg

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.