The Heath Hen
(Tympanachus cupido cupido)
There are very few actual photographs of the Heath Hen because it went extinct in
the 1930’s.
(These are actual photos of “Booming Ben”, the very last Heath Hen on Earth,
taken by Dr. Alfred Gross who studied the Heath Hen very carefully here on the
Vineyard.)
There are not even very many skins and taxidermed specimens
today for scientists to study.
The field at the James Green Farm, where the last living Heath Hen
was seen on March 11, 1932 by Dr. Alfred Gross.
When the final bird did not appear the following spring, the
Vineyard Gazette of April 21, 1933 carried this obituary.
In 2004, a plaque was put near the field to commemorate the Heath
Hen.
Explain this: If color photography didn’t come along until long after
the Heath Hen went extinct, where did this color photograph come
from?
A close relative to the Heath Hen (The Prairie Chicken) still exists
in the Midwest today, but in very small numbers. It nearly went
extinct for the same reasons as the Heath Hen.
The Heath Hen was actually a sub-species of the Prairie Chicken.
They were extremely similar in appearance.
“Extinction is forever.”
Or is it?
Some have proposed introducing a population of Prairie Chickens to the
Katama Plains of Martha’s Vineyard, where their cousins the Heath Hens
once flourished. What do YOU think?