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Mystery as 5k homing pigeons vanish
- graderjs 5y agoStrangely the article blames it on "solar storms", but there have been none lately. Could be a weakening Earth field due to the current geomagnetic excursion...
- fogihujy 5y agoI was thinking the same thing. Does anyone know if there's any recent data on Earth's magnetic field, and which is publicly available?
- goodcanadian 5y agoThat seems to have been a random quote from a random individual. I would put exactly zero weight on it. Vague hand waving about weather is all I took away from the article. In other words, no one knows.
- datameta 5y agoPigeons are able to detect the earth's magnetic field and navigate by it. By occam's razor the disruption of that is a likely scenario.
- unanswered 5y agoIt seems likely that this tragedy was ultimately due to climate change...
- Proven 5y ago... and the solution is higher taxes, right?
- roebk 5y agoI believe one of these birds ended up at my fathers garden in North Lincolnshire. The bird spent the best part of a week in his garden, showing no signs of injury, nor any sign of wanting to fly off straight back off. After a week of food and water, the pigeon finally took off again. Hopefully it got to whereever it needed to. https://www.flickr.com/photos/roebuck06/51278515733/in/album-72157719471030853/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/roebuck06/51278515733/in/album...
- angrais 5y agoFor future reference and other readers, the rings around its leg have an ID written on it that you can use to lookup the pigeon owner online. Likewise, the ring likely had an RFID chip that has the ID, gender (of the pigeon: cock/hen), and owner (or racing club) details embedded within it. Since it has a ring, it would be happy to be handled, and am certain that any owner would appreciate having their pigeon returned.
- robotmay 5y agoI came across a racing pigeon in Sidmouth once, presumably it had stopped for a rest/food, but I was amazed by how easy it was to handle - I held out my hand once I saw it had a ring and it just hopped right up. Either that or I'm a Disney princess.
- hackeraccount 5y agoThat's a handsome looking pigeon.
- luckman212 5y agoCool looking pigeon. But man it's super annoying how non-functional zoom/pinch is on the flickr site when viewing this on iPhone.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pentae 5y agoHaha. I love that "Pigeon fancier" is the actual dictionary term for someone that keeps and breeds pigeons.
- lovemenot 5y agoFancy pigeons is another term of art. Similar to thoroughbred, a fancy pigeon is a pigeon with a breeding objective. I imagine the term pigeon fancier was derived from it: someone who breeds fancy pigeons. Darwin was a pigeon fancier [0]. He was working on theories of sexual selection. It's interesting that terms like "fit" and "fancy", as used by British teenagers are so apt. [0] https://www.jstor.org/stable/230968 https://www.jstor.org/stable/230968
- thekid314 5y agoHere's some portraits of fancy pigeons I made back in the day: https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/fancy-pigeons/ https://www.daviddegner.com/photography/fancy-pigeons/
- criddell 5y agoI remember pet stores used to have a magazine by the checkout called Cat Fancy and I always thought that was a funny title. Now it makes some sense.
- emerged 5y agoI could never not laugh when seeing that magazine. I’d just imagine a wealthy person sipping tea and reading Cat Fancy through their monocle in an opulent mansion.
- tokai 5y agoApparently earlier homing pigeon disappearances have been blamed on weather disturbing their infrasonic hearing, that the pigeons use to navigate with. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130130184147.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130130184147.h... https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/216/4/687/11868/Atmospheric-propagation-modeling-indicates-homing https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/216/4/687/11868/...
- mannykannot 5y agoYour mention of infrasonics immediately makes me think of wind turbines, which I guess might generate quite a lot of infrasonic noise.
- lovemenot 5y agoAn intriguing theory, but not proven conclusively here. A single experiment relying on a speculative model implemented by one computer scientist combining data from multiple sources. I am not in a position to attempt to discredit the research, but it doesn't feel right. Low frequency audio gives much more information when propogating through a dense medium like water than through the air.
- quack321 5y ago5,000 drones that ran out of battery
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- undfg 5y agoWhy 5k instead of 5000?
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoThey mean the same thing.
- tremon 5y agoCareful, this might devolve into speculation whether it was really 5000 or if they meant 5120.
- mattowen_uk 5y agoHN submission form has an upper limit on characters for the link title. This may have forced the submitter to substitute 5000 for 5k.
- sp332 5y agoIt's approximate. 5,000 looks more specific. Kind of like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figures#Ways_to_denote_significant_figures_in_an_integer_with_trailing_zeros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figures#Ways_to_de...
- aaron695 5y agoIt happened in multiple races on Saturday, June 19 - https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pigeon-group-blame-freak-weather-20920258 https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pigeon-group-b... "Any current reading of local figures over 150 nT in the A index of geomagnetic activity, or 4 or higher in 'K' index, is considered unsafe for training or racing pigeons" https://www.foresthillweather.com/SpaceDailyGeomagnetic.php https://www.foresthillweather.com/SpaceDailyGeomagnetic.php Seems fine? It's been reported in Portugal as well - https://www.portugalresident.com/racing-pigeons-totally-confused-by-portugals-horrible-weather/ https://www.portugalresident.com/racing-pigeons-totally-conf...
- touristtam 5y ago> To date the furthest a Portuguese racing pigeon seems to have flown off course is 2,222 kms, straight into a bucket of paint in Plymouth, UK (click here). That's one hell of a confused pigeon.
- thenoblesunfish 5y agoI just read "Pigeons" by Andrew Blechman, which uses pigeon racers as its main through-line. Among other interesting facts in there: the pigeons you find in cities are not wild animals, but feral ones - they are all descended from domesticated animals. That has practical consequences because for example it's illegal to hunt wild animals in New York City, but the law doesn't apply to feral animals. Thus, there are (or were, when the book was written a few years ago) people who throw big nets over pigeons in NYC and sell them for a few bucks apiece in Pennsylvania, where they are (legally, still) shot for sport.
- praptak 5y agoIn Poland city pigeons are exempt from some animal protection laws. So while it's generally illegal to destroy functioning birds' nests, ones belonging to city pigeons are fair game.
- csunbird 5y agoIn Europe, they are seen as rats that can fly, which I find funny.
- touristtam 5y agoThe city council of Paris has been controlling pigeons population for a while now: https://observers.france24.com/en/20100805-pigeons-paris-public-enemy-number-one https://observers.france24.com/en/20100805-pigeons-paris-pub...
- aphexairlines 5y agoCall them what they are: racing pigeons separated from their mates as a way to coerce them into flying ridiculous distances. If you find one around your home, call the RSPCA or a rescue group. PETA info on pigeon racing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SG_QHuhzXE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SG_QHuhzXE
- sweetheart 5y agoYeah, this is so weird. In the article they talk about honoring the birds for having helped thousands of lives (no idea what this is referring to), so they decide to do that through… making them race for our enjoyment? I don’t get why people have a hard time leaving animals alone. Or in cases where some intervention is needed to preserve the animal, they expect something in return. Weird and shameful, imho.
- angrais 5y agoI've no idea what it refers to either, but pigeon owners take great pleasure and enjoyment breeding and training them. Perhaps that's what they refer to regarding how they have impacted the lives of humans? I cannot speak for pigeons as I am a human, but if I was fed, watered, had a comfortable home, often with radio or TV, high quality medical care, and in return I fly a few times a week? Sign me up! They are breed for the purpose of flight (or sometimes looks). They cannot be "left alone" as they're not quite the same as feral pigeons. There is absolutely no shame in keeping pigeons, caring for them, and racing them.
- angrais 5y agoI should comment that I have now watched the PETA video. The intro frame is a standard mechanism for releasing pigeons during a race. It is true that some pigeons do not make it home. That's not to say that they have died, but perhaps got lost or "mysteriously" disappeared as in the article of this thread. I agree that it large portions of pigeons were dying with each race that it would be terrible, but in practice this is often not the case. Likewise, if pigeons fly home wounded their owners often stitch them up and care for them. If the wound is too much, then they can be unfortunately killed to remove the pain. Compare this with feral pigeons ... The difference in "lifestyle" between them is stark.
- pshort 5y agoThe answer is in the title. "thin air".
- kristianp 5y agoThat explains the guano at the local MRI clinic.
- earwolf1 5y agoMemo to all assassin brotherhood members - please keep messages to a single pigeon.