Poor Booming Ben Died

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This is all about the poor extinct heath hen. Of course, you never heard of one they do not exist. The heading refers to the last make heath hen nicknamed Booming Ben who died back in 1932. So let’s take a look at what happened to this poor bird. To try to keep save this species from becoming extinct New York State legislature passed a protective bill in 1791. Heath hens were native to a great many parts of northeast U.S. and there were so many of them that they started being referred to as “poor man’s food”. Unfortunately, they were hunted in such numbers that by the mid-1800s there were no heath hens left on the U.S. mainland. The final home for these hens was Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Due to illegal poaching, diseases from domestic fowls and predation from feral cats they were dwindling fast by the mid 1890s. Then in 1908 came the Heath Hen Reserve and a hunting ban. Once again the population of the hens rose. Tragedy struck in 1916 when a fire destroyed the reserve and only twelve birds remained in 1927 among them two female hens. They don’t inform about what happened to these hens but the last male was known as Booming Ben. Photo faculty.montgomerycollege.edu