Why do cities have so many freaking pigeons?
I got pooped on by a pigeon while on holiday, so I have a vengeance against them…
The other day, we learnt about how the title for the “Most Expensive Bird in the World” belongs to a young female racing pigeon, who sold for a staggering €1.6 million in an auction.
But not all pigeons are million dollar birds! Today, let’s learn more about how the other half lives - that is, the poor pigeons of the world who live in cities, scrounging for scraps, eking out a living!
With great populations of pigeons comes great amounts of poop
Picture this: You go on a holiday to Milan, Italy, and buy a delicious Italian pastry!!!! While munching on it, you walk to the Milan Cathedral and take in the sights. As you prepare to take a third bite of the delicious flakey creation in your hands… a pigeon poops on your hand - and on the pastry, too!!! T_T
That really happened to me, a few years ago. It was the first day of my holiday, too, lol. But some people believe that it’s lucky when a bird poops on you. So I took it as a sign of good fortune!
Anyway, Milan’s Cathedral Square is home to literally a bajillion pigeons. So is Trafalgar Square in London, Times Square in New York City, and so on. It seems like every major city is home to flocks and flocks of these ‘pests’. But have you ever wondered why cities have so many pigeons, and where they all came from?
Where are you from? No, where are you REALLY from?
Pigeons are not native to Milan, London, New York City, or even Singapore. In fact, the species helms from North Africa and other areas around the Mediterranean Sea, where they liked to nest on hard surfaces such as rocky ledges and cliffs.
Today, though, they can be found in pretty much every major city, and they nest alongside the high-rise buildings. Their natural affinity for hard surfaces allowed them to adapt perfectly to urban areas! They are comfortable nesting on hard surfaces, and they take off from high-rise locations by ‘leaping’ with strong flaps of their wings.
The full name of the pigeon is actually Rock Pigeon (because they live on rocks)!
And although many of us are familiar with domesticated birds like chickens, ducks and geese, I bet you didn’t know that the Rock Pigeon is actually the world's first and oldest domesticated bird!!
Artefacts from people living in ancient cultures - from Mesopotamia to Egypt - mention the domestication of pigeons. These artefacts date back to over 5,000 years ago - way before Jesus was born! On the other hand, it seems like chickens were first domesticated around 3,500 years ago.
Just like chickens, it seems that pigeons were probably domesticated to be used as food. However, pigeons seem to be a lot smarter and more useful than chickens. They can also be used to carry messages over long distances, due to their natural ‘homing’ ability.
This same ‘homing’ ability is what gave birth to the million-dollar industry of homing pigeons, pigeon racing, and: the sale of the €1.6 million pigeon.
So anyway, why do cities have so many freaking pigeons?
The truth is that the Rock Pigeon is in almost every corner of the world because our human ancestors brought them there.
As Rock Pigeons became more tame (thus domesticated, duh) people began breeding them for food. When they travelled from land to land, they would bring cages of pigeons with them, in order to breed and eat these birds.
P.S., this is the same reason why wild rabbits are in parts of the world they aren’t native to, such as Australia!
In 1859, European wild rabbits were successfully introduced into Australia so they could be hunted for sport and eaten.
But the rabbits bred like rabbits, and within just 50 years, rabbits had spread across almost the entire continent. Their population grew to such a size that these invasive rabbits destroyed crops and land, leading to soil erosion! They also negatively affected agriculture and plants by overgrazing (so nothing could grow, cos they were constantly getting munched on).
Not only did the rabbits wreak havoc on Australian croplands, they contributed to the decline of native plant and animal species. :(
The proliferation of rabbits in Australia holds the world record for the fastest of an introduced mammal anywhere in the world. Australia is now home to at least 150 million feral rabbits.
Back to Rock Pigeons, though: just like the rabbits in Australia, these feral birds are sometimes seen as pests. Since they poop (a lot, and sometimes on people), they are sometimes seen as gross, dirty, and disease-ridden. And, some cities have even taking to culling pigeons! Singapore is no exception.
However, the domestic pigeon was brought to the ‘New World’ (aka the Western part of the world, such as the United States of America) because they were an easy, and vital, source of food, companionship, and even as messengers.
In the years, decades and centuries that have passed, some of those pigeons escape, and some were released. The freed birds began breeding, and lo and behold, centuries later - we have a pigeon pooping on my hand and Italian pastry as I admire the Milan Cathedral.
So that’s your answer to why cities have so many freaking pigeons!