what happened to the passenger pigeon

The passenger pigeon was once the most abundant bird in North America, but it went extinct due to a combination of commercial exploitation and loss of habitat. The bird was hunted on a massive scale for its meat, and its flocks and communal breeding made it highly vulnerable to overexploitation. Despite efforts by conservationists to stop the slaughter, legal measures were passed and disregarded in several states. The birds were also disrupted in their nesting grounds, which impaired their reproduction. The last known individual of the species, named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1, 1914, and was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. The extinction of the passenger pigeon was entirely human-caused and avoidable.