THERE is much in the press at present about declining wildlife.

I wonder how many people know about the demise of the American passenger pigeon?

The last remaining specimen of what some say was the most numerous bird to populate the planet died in captivity in 1914. It was estimated there were between three and five billion of them in the US.

Flocks were seen to be 300 miles long and a mile wide, taking weeks to pass by, their droppings falling like snow – with Man killing them in huge numbers wherever and whenever possible with guns, nets and alcohol-laced grain.

The Indians had lived off the pigeons for thousands of years until the advent of the gun caused the birds stress and they started to fail to breed. Most slaves were fed on pigeon meat and millions per day were killed, salted and sent to the big cities of the US.

It was not global warming or pesticides that caused their extinction. It was Man and his greed and cutting down the woods where the pigeons used to feed and breed, some trees holding up to 100 nests. If this can happen to such a numerous species, anything is possible.

Malcolm Rolling, Carrville, Durham.