3 ms·

I'm a bit perplexed about how the ecosystem could even support most of these. Or maybe that explains the extinctions. The locusts, the herrings and the passeng

• adekok 12y ago
  Locusts are simply grasshoppers who bumped up against Malthus. Literally. http://www.asknature.org/strategy/33ba1618fc358f29f0be63a19ee36050 http://www.asknature.org/strategy/33ba1618fc358f29f0be63a19e... The grasshopper population grows until they start physically bumping into each other. Then they turn into locusts. The swarm moves because the front of the swarm is eating all of the plants, which leaves nothing for the locusts at the rear of the swarm. i.e. the ones at the rear of the swarm start eating the ones in front of them. Who move in order to stay alive.
• Amezarak 12y ago
  It's likely we're mostly to blame. Apparently Rocky Mountain locusts laid their eggs in a relatively small area of land when they weren't swarming that we plowed up, destroying all the egg cases. From the wikipedia link elsewhere in this thread, it's claimed that hundreds of cases were destroyed per square inch of land by farming. In the case of passenger pigeon, I've seen evidence that they did have booms and busts historically, but we slaughtered them for food, feed, and fun in truly staggering numbers [1] There was a massive passenger-pigeon-harvesting industry that was interested in harvesting as many birds as possible until there weren't any left. [1] As many as a billion birds were killed by hunters in a single 50 day hunt near one Michigan town. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120318/METRO/203180301 http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120318/METRO/203180301