TheNAT’s Dia De Los Muertos Ofrenda

The San Diego Natural History Museum, also known as theNAT, is an educational collection of exhibits about various animals, plants, and scientific tidbits. Their mission is to interpret the natural world through research, education and exhibits; to promote understanding of the evolution and diversity of southern California and the peninsula of Baja California; and to inspire in all a respect for nature and the environment. This Tuesday and Wednesday, theNAT brings you a special display on the Passenger Pigeon…

Once numbering in the billions, the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was once the most numerous bird in North America but is now extinct. Commercial hunting was the primary factor leading to the Passenger Pigeon’s extinction. In some nesting colonies, hunters killed 50,000 individuals a day for weeks at a time, and they disrupted every colony for decades. Laying just one egg per clutch and losing the forests that sustained it, the Passenger Pigeon could not keep pace. The last Passenger Pigeon on the planet died in a zoo on September 1, 1914. Ninety-seven years later, on Día de los Muertos we will honor the Passenger Pigeon and all other species extinct from human causes with a modest ofrenda dedicated our lost wildlife. The ofrenda will be on display, fittingly, in the Skulls exhibition on the Museum’s 3^rd floor on November 1 and 2 only.

For more information, please visit www.sdnhm.org.