Kushi Week #14 – Carrier Pigeons
Today, pigeons are referred to as “rats with wings,” but they weren’t always the subject of such malice. In fact, pigeons as we know them today are the result of generations of artificial selection; rock doves (city pigeons) are domesticated animals descending from ancestors that were kept and selectively bred for human use. In this way, pigeons are similar to dogs — except for the fact that there are now over 1,000 different breeds and that they are no longer wanted by humans.
But historically, pigeons were of great use, from militia to medicine. During both the First and Second World War, carrier pigeons were used to transport messages across the battlefield, and 32 pigeons were presented with the Dickin Medal for their life saving efforts. And their efforts were life saving — these birds were used to send essential messages on land, in the air, and over the sea, in circumstances such as when soldiers were stranded at sea or when radio communication was impossible — often, the speed they brought to military communications saved entire divisions (like the 77th division). In addition to their travels behind enemy lines, these pigeons were also used to transport lifesaving medicine.
But homing pigeons had existed long before that; homing pigeons were potentially being used as a postal system in Ancient Egypt around 1350 BCE, and Pliny the Elder described similar use of pigeons around the first century CE. But this species does not exist today. Despite their impact throughout human history, the carrier pigeon (also called the passenger pigeon) was hunted to extinction; they were once estimated to be the most abundant birds in the world with a total population of 3-5 billion, but the commercial exploitation of pigeon meat and exponential loss of habitat killed the passenger pigeon.
As their habitat in the wild shrank (due to human expansion and deforestation to clear space for large scale monoculture farming), with nowhere else to go, the birds began to use the grain fields of farmers for nesting, breeding, and food. This damaged the farmers’ crops, and they retaliated by shooting them out of the sky and using them for food. This, in turn, led to professional hunters netting and capturing pigeons to sell them on the market, which led to the aforementioned commercial exploitation. This continued throughout the 1800s, with the highest death rates being 50,000 pigeons per day. By the time the government finally agreed to impose legislation on the hunting of these birds, it was too late for the population to recover. The last carrier pigeon died in a zoo in 1914.
photo credit
Hi Kushi! Your blog on pigeons was really insightful because pigeons have been an important species for humanity for hundreds of years, yet they never get the credit they deserve. Pigeons were the first birds to be tamed by man, and pigeons were brought to America which is interesting because most people think pigeons originated from America. Pigeons, which are still unfortunately considered “rats in the sky,” were held in high regard during the regency era. Regency era literary works often mentioned pigeons because they represented affairs and new romance during the 1800s. For example, many Jane Austen novels utilize pigeons in order to represent and symbolize love. Moreover, without pigeons, we would not have all the information we have about Darwinism and evolution because Darwin has stated that he only thought of the Theory of Evolution after observing pigeons. Before the pigeons came, however, the most hated birds during the nineteenth century was the House Sparrow, which was first introduced to America in 1852 in order to get rid of destructive moth species, but soon became considered “filthy” and “immoral” creatures. Humans haven’t always been fair to animal species that have helped us grow as a society, and hopefully we become more accepting of these important creatures.
ReplyDeleteHello Kushi! I don't understand why people have decided to get rid of the use of carrier pigeons (well I guess dogs and cats are better but still birds are cool too). It would be so cool if someone could get asked out to prom via pigeon, I would definitely vote for that one to win the promposal contest. Since you talked so much about the history behind these pigeons, I assume you up to speed on this creature's background so instead I will talk about how pigeons are now in modern day. Whenever I go to big cities I always see them lingering the streets praying for someone's downfall and for them to drop their slice of pizza when running to take the subway or something along those lines. Honestly I find them so funny, most of them are like you said domesticated birds so they walk the streets like people and sometimes I like to take selfies with them. I think the most recognition the bird has gotten these days was being the Twitter logo but Elon ruined that.
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