The oldest known domesticated bird is not, as many people might think, the chicken. I thought so until I heard this story. The winner is, the Pigeon. Pigeons are well known for their receptiveness to training and among their earliest uses was the practice of using them as message carriers, often in war and to this end used as recently as WWI. Messenger pigeons are still trained today, but primarily by hobbyists.
Now humans are naturally competitive, and by extension posses the desire to see the products of our training compete in our name. So it seemed only natural that people would test the speed and accuracy of their pigeons against each other, and so in Belgium, in the mid 19th century was born the sport of pigeon racing. Syncronized clocks are set at competing coops and pigeons are released from a set distance and clocks are checked to see whose pigeons return home first. For those who are interested, speeds are recorded in ypm or mpm. Yards per minute or meters per minute.
I am uncertain what the winner gets, but a record setting Dutch racing pigeon sold at auction for £209,000 or around $330,500.
Recently in Yorkshire, in one narrow triangle between the towns of Thirsk, Wetherby and Consett hundreds of pigeons have not been returning home. Any route that carries pigeons through this “no fly zone” seems to incur serious losses to flocks. During a recent event only thirteen of over two hundred birds released were recovered by their owners.
From Telegraph.co.UK
Experts are baffled at the phenomenon, with abnormally high rainfall, high levels of solar activity and even signals from a spy base being blamed.
Let’s just hope they are not gathering somewhere they may not be noticed…
and waiting.
But just in case there is a Pigeon Apocalypse on its way,
you heard it here first.
And to clarify, no one is suggesting a connection between crop circle activity in Yorkshire, and the missing pigeons.
No one at all is saying that.
Least of all me.
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