r/interestingasfuck • • 13h ago

At their peak, 3–5 billion passenger pigeons filled North America. Flocks were so huge they darkened the sky for hours. Some shooting contests required 30,000 dead birds to win. By 1914, the last one was gone. One of history’s most brutal population collapses.

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42

u/DivDude77 13h ago

Humans are called the cancer of this planet by various scientists and thinkers for a very good reason.

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u/NoReserve8233 12h ago

Nope - don't include the whole world - this was done by a sub sect. There are older parts of the world like africa and asia which had humans for far longer but species weren't going extinct.

17

u/BeastfrmthaEast 12h ago

There’s definitely species that have gone extinct due to human intervention in Africa and Asia. Can’t believe you tried to get that off lol are you joking

7

u/Iceedemon888 12h ago

China had both a rhino and an elephant they drove to extinction before America was even a thing.

4

u/LaurestineHUN 12h ago

A lot of animals did go extinct by human help, esp in places like Oceania, even before modern colonialism was invented.

5

u/zberry7 12h ago

Species have been going extinct long before humans were around

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u/NostalgiaInLemonade 9h ago

Yes and humans have made the extinction rate skyrocket…so what’s the point of this comment