© 2026 Interlochen
CLASSICAL IPR | 88.7 FM Interlochen | 94.7 FM Traverse City | 88.5 FM Mackinaw City IPR NEWS | 91.5 FM Traverse City | 90.1 FM Harbor Springs/Petoskey | 89.7 FM Manistee/Ludington
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Temporary service disruptions during improvements on WIAB 88.5 FM and WHBP 90.1 FM

Chicago Academy of Sciences

  • A portrait of a passenger pigeon from 1908. By this point, wild passenger pigeons had already vanished. The last of the species, a captive pigeon named Martha, died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo. (credit: John Henry Hintermeister / Wikimedia Commons)
    The Pigeons’ Last Passage
    Ellie Katz
    Passenger pigeons were once the most abundant bird in North America. But in 1914, they went extinct. Most of their last nesting grounds hugged the Great Lakes. What was it like to experience these birds? And what are we left with when we lose a species?