Facts about Pigeons
Unless forcibly separated, pigeons mate for life. Male pigeons have the rare ability to lactate, producing milk for the babies just like the females do! Newborn pigeons weaned on the “pigeon milk” of both parents, double their weight in the first two days! A grown pigeon has nearly 10,000 feathers. Pigeons have been known to live over 30-years! In the 17th century, King George I of England, decreed all pigeon droppings to be property of the Crown—and the “lofts” were policed to enforce the law! (Pigeon manure was used in making gunpowder) With the ability to beat its wings up to ten times per second, and maintain a heart rate of 600 beats per minute for up to 16-hours without rest, the racing pigeon is the unequalled athlete of the air! Picasso admired pigeons, painting them frequently, and naming his daughter, Paloma, which is Spanish for pigeon. It is interesting to know that B.F. Skinner, the behavioral psychologist, taught his pigeons to play a crude form of ping-pong using their wings as paddles. Pigeons are athletes of the highest caliber: While racehorses receive all the glory with their 35 mph sprints around a one-mile racetrack, Homing Pigeons—a mere pound of flesh and feathers—routinely fly more than 500 miles in a single day at speeds exceeding 60 mph, finding their way home from a place they've never been before, and without stopping. Pigeons can reach peak velocity in seconds and maintain it for hours on end. One was recorded flying for several hours at 110 M.P.H. Pigeon racing is an internationally popular sport that can count the Queen of England among its enthusiasts. Winning birds can bring home millions of dollars in prize money and fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction. Baby pigeons ("squab") are called the milk-fed veal of the sky, and are treasured by chefs the world over and served rare at many of the finest restaurants. Pigeons don't nest in trees, but prefer nesting on rocky ledges (although a window ledge will do just fine). They mate for life. Pigeons populate every continent on Earth, with the exception of Antarctica. In America alone, you'll find them in the arid deserts of Arizona and the frigid climes of Alaska. Pigeons do not migrate but rather adapt to their chosen location year-round. A famous WWI homing pigeon named “Cher Ami” finished his distinguished career by delivering a vital message: The location of the famous “Lost Battalion”. That mission alone is credited with saving nearly 200 human lives! “Cher Ami” was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Palm for his heroic service. He died of his extensive battle wounds. One WW II homing pigeon named “GI Joe” saved over 1000 allied soldiers lives in a single mission! He was awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. His average speed on that flight was 60 mph! Despite enemy fire, pigeons achieved a 98% success rate in missions flown in WW II—often with mortal injuries to themselves. The French, Swiss, Israeli, Iraqi and Chinese armies still use homing pigeons today! Pigeons proved valuable in the Gulf War, as their messaging was not affected by electronic jamming. The pigeon has quite rare ability for a large bird to be able to fly nearly straight up. Studies conducted by B.F. Skinner at Harvard showed that pigeons have a visual memory that can store at least 300 objects or images indefinitely! The pharmaceutical industry in Australia “employed” pigeons trained to identify anomalies in pills and capsules on a moving conveyor, and remove them from production. The birds did outstanding work but authorities quickly put an end to the practice! Racing Pigeons routinely maintain flight speeds of 50 to 60 mph and they can fly for all day long, that is from sun-set to sun-rise. Some pigeons reverse-commute, feeding on grain in the country, while living in the city. Advanced studies at the University of Montana conclude: “Pound for pound, columba livia (the pigeon) is one of the smartest, most physically adept creatures in the animal kingdom.” The pigeon is the world's oldest domesticated bird. Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets mention the domestication of pigeons more than 5,000 years ago, as do Egyptian hieroglyphics. The vast majority of today's feral pigeons can trace their roots to the proliferation of dovecotes across Eurasia. Ancient Rome was populated with feral pigeons nesting on its monuments and homes. French settlers imported the Rock Dove to the New World for meat in the early 1600s. Now they populate nearly every city in the Western Hemisphere. Pigeons have been utilized by every major historical superpower from ancient Egypt to the United States of America. It was a pigeon that delivered the results of the first Olympics in 776 B.C., and a pigeon that first brought news of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo more than 2,500 years later. Nearly a million pigeons served in both World Wars and are credited with saving thousands of soldiers' lives. Noah's dove was a pigeon. The bird's message of subsiding waters, and thus new beginnings and hope, lent the pigeon its role as Bird of Peace. Pigeon droppings were once considered a semi-precious commodity. In ancient Egypt it was highly prized manure, and for centuries in England pigeon feces were declared property of the Crown. The valuable dung was used to manufacture saltpeter, a critical ingredient for making gunpowder. Julius Reuters parlayed the use of pigeons into what would become the world's largest newsgathering organization. He created an empire literally on the backs of pigeons. A fancier, Darwin heavily relied of the study of his pigeons to support his theory of evolution. |
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