Animal

Heath hen

Tympanuchus cupido cupido

Also known as: Tympanuchus cupido cupido, Eastern prairie chicken

The eastern subspecies of the greater prairie chicken, native to the coastal heath grasslands and pine barrens of the northeastern United States — from Maine through Virginia. Once abundant enough that 17th-century colonists complained of being kept awake by their booming calls; reportedly so common in early Boston that servants stipulated in their contracts they would not have to eat heath hen more than a few times a week. Driven to extinction in the early 20th century by hunting, habitat loss, predation by introduced cats, and disease. The last known surviving individual — a single male, banded and tracked, called *Booming Ben* — was last seen on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1932. He had been alone for years, calling from a now-empty lek. He never returned. The heath hen was extinct.

What was

Heath hens were grouse — close relatives of the greater prairie chicken — adapted to the coastal heath grasslands and pine-barrens of the northeastern United States. Males gathered on traditional lek sites in spring, inflated their orange neck-sacs, and produced the booming calls that gave their northeastern names heath hen and pinnated grouse.

They lived through Maine, [[barre-ma|Massachusetts]], Connecticut, [[beacon-ny|New York]], New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia. Colonists found them abundant. Servants in Boston reportedly negotiated their work contracts to limit how often they could be served heath hen for dinner. The species was, in 1700, one of the most-easily-hunted edible birds of the entire region.

How it ended

The decline was steady through the 18th and 19th centuries. Hunting, habitat loss to agriculture, predation by introduced cats, and disease combined to push the species off the mainland by 1870. By 1890 the only remaining population was on Martha’s Vineyard, [[barre-ma|Massachusetts]].

In 1908 the State of [[barre-ma|Massachusetts]] established a 1,600-acre reserve to protect the remnant population. Numbers climbed briefly to about 2,000 birds. Then a fire in 1916, a hard winter, an outbreak of poultry-borne disease, and predation by feral cats reduced the population again. By 1927 only 13 birds remained. By 1929, two. By 1930, one — a single male, Booming Ben, who returned each spring to display at a lek with no other males and no females. He was banded and tracked. He was last seen on March 11, 1932. He never returned.

The heath hen was extinct.

What the loss means

The heath hen extinction is the first one tracked individual-by-individual to its end. Booming Ben was the last of his species, alone on a lek, calling. Modern conservation biology dates much of its institutional grief from his disappearance. The 1908 reserve was the first dedicated species-recovery preserve in the United States. It was not enough.

The northeastern heath grasslands and pine-barrens still exist in fragments — the Albany Pine Bush, the New Jersey [[pine-barrens|Pine Barrens]], the heaths of Long Island and Nantucket. The booming calls that defined them for thousands of years are not coming back.

Sources

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, Christopher Cokinos
[[barre-ma|Massachusetts]] Audubon Society records
Multiple historical and ornithological sources on Booming Ben

Rooted in life.

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