History, indeed repeats itself...

This is the Heath Hen, a type of prairie chicken that lived in the Northeastern United states. It gathered every year to mate in leks, a little patch of grass to compete for females. The birds were overkilled by pilgrims and settlers, and were depleating rapidly by the revolutionary and civil wars. Conservationists began an interest, including John Audubon, when the birds were reported to only survive on Martha's vineyard, a tiny island off of cape cod. THere were about 50 left. The island was protected, and the population sprouted a comeback, 2,000 individuals strong by 1915, one year before the extinction of passenger pigeons and five before the carolina parakeet, shown left. THen disaster struck, fires burned the leks, and a surge in goshawks caused over predation, then domestic turkeys brought disease that swept across the island. By 1927 there were 13 left. Mostly males. THe last of which was sighted in 1932. Today a subspecies of the heath hen, once roaming a million acres in texas, the attwater's prairie chicken, is extremely endangered. There are perhaps 300 individuals surviving, only 60 or so in the wild. The wild population is being stimulated by captive bred birds, and it declines 50% in the wild every year. It survives on two wild life refuges that make up 1% of it's original habitat. It seems this ghost of a former new england game bird, will be a ghost again someday, unless much work to save it, and it's habitat, is put into higher action. You can adopt attwater's prairie chickens for $25, just google "adopting attwater's prairie chickens", and you can help out in preserving this world we've done so much to destroy.