while looking at the Misplaced Wildlife page on TV Tropes, the Carolina Parakeet was brought to my attention. i've known of this extinct bird for years but never looked into how it died out. out of curiosity, i did so, and one of the possible/collective causes was loss of habitat due to the forests they lived in being cut down to make room for farming land
why am i bringing this up in a thread about the cotton gin? if you're sharp, you may have already figured it out: if the cotton gin is invented later, the Carolina Parakeet may well be able to survive at least as an endangered species in some areas (they lived throughout much of the eastern US) and died out as late as 1918. if the cotton gin is delayed by twenty years or so and less of the Near South (and Maryland and Delaware in particular) are devoted to agriculture, perhaps some of the parakeets can be saved thanks to the butterflies of a later cotton gin