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I always had a negative view of pigeons as being “flying rats”, but someone pointed this out to me that humans domesticated them, revered them, bred them, used
by junto 2y ago
I always had a negative view of pigeons as being “flying rats”, but someone pointed this out to me that humans domesticated them, revered them, bred them, used them to deliver messages and then the telegram and telephone came along. These new communication tools made them superfluous to our needs so we abandoned them.
Put in that context it’s rather sad.
- timthorn 2y agoGordon Corera wrote a good book covering their use in WWII: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37933332-secret-pigeon-service https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37933332-secret-pigeon-s...
- ljf 2y agoMy (mildly interesting) pigeon story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39689815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39689815 I think they are amazing, and as you say they were once integral to our lives, now just a pest.
- Loughla 2y agoThat's a fun story. We raised roller pigeons after a pair showed up at our farm. They obviously escaped from somewhere, as they were red and tame. Until we knew what they were, we assumed there was something wrong with them, as they couldn't fly without doing loops and flips. That's what they're bred to do. And they're delicious, as a side note. . .
- ljf 2y agoI'm I'm eating pigeon (which we used to a lot as a child) - I was always told that Wood Pigeon was the tastiest - but I can't say I could tell the difference.
- gerdesj 2y agoAn ecosystem (world) has all sorts of niches. Pigeons (Rock Doves) are simply living and evolving according to circumstances they encounter. Some pigeons have been given medals during wartime (1). All organisms do what they do, because that is what they do. You do too, but you get to be retrospective about it on internet forums. Pigeons don't ... yet. "Flying rats". OK so what is wrong with rats? They often perform a initial clean up role and live blameless lives, if we want to think of them in a positive way - they don't care. Rats and many other "pests" tend to get "out of control" thanks to mostly human interventions: dumping waste inappropriately and the like. (1) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17138990 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17138...
- fire_lake 2y agoIt is. I wonder what a humane method of population control looks like? Pigeon feeding can lead to rats so it seems reasonable to ban that.
- jonathrg 2y agoFeeding birds will only lead to rats if you give them the wrong food or too much. Otherwise they will eat it all up and there will be nothing left for the rats.
- lxgr 2y agoOne option practiced in some cities with a pigeon population problem is to offer them safe, clean nesting places and to periodically swap out their eggs they lay there for decoys as part of cleaning. Perhaps surprisingly, they won't lay any more eggs as long as they're busy "incubating" the decoys! That'll also prevent at least the particular pigeons nesting there from building nests in other, more annoying locations, and when kept clean decreases the chance of spreading diseases both among themselves and to humans (bird flu, for example). Some other methods of decreasing their unnecessary suffering is to just generally keep cities clean (hopefully an easy win-win?), especially of human hair: Apparently barbers and hairdressers sweeping hair cuttings out into the street are a main reason for pigeons slowly and painfully losing their toes or entire feet.