Considering passenger pigeon abundance and distribution in the Late Woodland zooarchaeological record of southern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once the most abundant bird species in North America. Flocks of these birds witnessed in the early 19th century were so vast that they were said to darken the sky for days as they passed. Early syntheses of passenger pigeon remains in archaeological contexts in the eastern United States, in contrast, found them to be relatively rare in relation to other fowl, leading to the suggestion that the colonial‐era hyper‐abundance of passenger pigeons was a post‐European‐contact phenomenon resulting from contact‐induced demographic and ecological changes. In this paper, we provide new insights into passenger pigeon historical ecology through a synthesis and GIS‐based analysis of zooarchaeological data on skeletal remains from 157 Late Woodland (ca. 900–1650 CE) sites in Ontario, Canada. Our results reveal that passenger pigeon bones are common, and often abundant, in Late Woodland archaeological assemblages in Ontario, which speaks to the species' importance to Indigenous peoples in the region. However, the relative abundance of passenger pigeon remains varies over time, suggesting longer‐term trends in their availability and/or in hunting patterns.

The prelude to industrial whaling: identifying the targets of ancient European whaling using zooarchaeology and collagen mass-peptide fingerprinting

“…Their representation in the archaeological record implies that they were frequently used. The species has a near-coastal habitat, is a slow swimmer and is naturally buoyant after death ( [54], [28][29][30]. It was thus a comparatively easy target-the 'right' whale to hunt-for the multiple whaling societies that once existed along its migration paths in European waters.…”

“…Classic cases of this phenomenon are known from both the recent and distant past, among both marine and terrestrial/avian fauna. Examples include the collapse of Newfoundland's northern cod (Gadus morhua) in 1992/1993 [26] and the European sea sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) in the early twentieth century [27], as well as the extinction of the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) in the mid-nineteenth century [28] and the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) in the early twentieth century [29]. This phenomenon can be understood as an ecological dimension of the so-called resource curse, where (for complex cultural and ecological reasons) socio-environmental systems with initially abundant natural resources may not ultimately thrive [30,31].…”

Songs of the past ‐ papers of the 10th ICAZ Bird Working Group Meeting

“…Albarella et al (2023) review the Holocene evidence for the presence of Eagle Owls ( Bubo bubo ) in Britain and its status as a native species. Orchard et al (2023) use a GIS‐approach of zooarchaeological sites to explore temporal patterns in Passenger Pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius ) abundance. Lastly, Silva‐Martínez et al (2023) investigate changes in body size, an important factor in a bird's ecology, in fossil and modern birds in the Yucatán since the Late Pleistocene.…”

“…The use of geometric morphometrics (Oueslati & Gruwier, 2023), a technique that has only been applied rarely to birds, might prove to be very useful in distinguishing closely related species. The GIS‐based approach by Orchard et al (2023) provides a promising avenue to study large‐scale patterns in species distributions. Literary and iconographic evidence remain important sources of information for understanding past human–animal relationships, as demonstrated in several papers (e.g., Alaica, 2023; Fernández et al, 2023; Lloveras et al, 2023).…”

Birds among the Moche of northern Peru: Examining food, environment, and ritual through avian taxa from Huaca Colorada (600–900 CE)

“…Avian species serve as key subsistence resources and as symbols in cultural practices around the world. Their remains can be found at archaeological sites through time, in which they have been used in foodways and as raw materials for osseous objects (Best et al, 2022; Codlin et al, 2022; Orchard et al, 2022). Bird behavior, locomotion, and vocalization insight interest from people that demand a study of their remains more closely whenever possible.…”