ALASKA

(Compiled by Joel Greenberg)

Alaska is well outside the historic range of the passenger pigeon and there is not to my knowledge any archeological material. However, a connection between the species and the state is of much more recent vintage: in December 2008, Henry Springer, a talented taxidermist and research associate of the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North donated a passenger pigeon to the museum. It is part of a display that also featured a mourning dove, Socorro dove, and eared dove. In announcing the generous gift, which actually was put together by Mr. Springer, the museum’s curator, Kevin Winkler, wrote: “To me they make an impressive statement not only of an important assemblage of New World dove species, but also of the failures and successes of managing wildlife.”

The passenger pigeon is the poster bird of extinction due to unremitting killing; eared doves are still being killed in vast numbers and piles of dead birds are proudly posted on the internet; mourning doves are hunted in large numbers but under careful regulations that ensure their continued abundance; and the Socorro dove was extirpated from the wild and only survived as a result of captive breeding programs; reintroductions into the wild have taken place. 

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