The poop on pigeons

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2008 (6261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 4,000-year-old hobby of keeping domestic pigeons for sport and exhibition is in dire straits. It is struggling to survive. Its future is uncertain in Canada and the United States where, until recent decades, it has been very popular for more than 150 years. Western Canada has long been one of its major North American strongholds. Recent participation across Canada has dropped acutely, robbing potential hobbyists of an opportunity to participate in an enormously satisfying activity.

“There are not many of us left,” said Bob Paulsen, a homing pigeon breeder in Saanich, B.C. “We are an endangered species.”

“The old-timers are mostly gone and the age group that is largely absent from the hobby now are those people in their 20s and early 30s,” confirmed Clint Robertson of Amaranth, Man., president of the Canadian Pigeon Fanciers Association.

Pigeon fanciers agree that keeping pigeons is a learning experience, because a flock of pigeons has a social structure, just like human society, and that by carefully watching the birds’ interactions, it is possible to get insight into how human societies work. For more than 2,000 years, that has been one of the main benefits of the hobby and still pertains today.

“In pigeons, there are bullies and there are meek birds, leaders and followers and through watching how they resolve disputes and get along as a group you learn about people, too,” said Kevin Sherman, a rolling pigeon breeder in Langford, B.C. “Keeping pigeons for our own pleasure and to learn from them is what it is all about.”

“When I was a kid, most of my friends kept pigeons for pleasure,” said Keith Aldridge, who keeps fancy pigeons in Victoria, B.C. “I started when I was 12. Our parents encouraged it because it taught us kids responsibility and discipline.”

Hobbyists have kept pigeons since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians; a mural on the wall of the Mastaba of Ptah-hotep (2498-2345 BC) shows a pigeon coop. A manuscript dating to the Pharaoh Mernere (2325-2150 BC) describes pigeon-keeping and Aristotle (324-332 BC) confirmed pigeons were popular pets in ancient Greece.

“Many people have a craze for keeping pigeons of high pedigree,” wrote the Roman historian Pliny in AD 23. And Marcus Varro (116-27 BC) confirmed elaborate pigeon lofts were common sights on Roman rooftops, some housing more than 5,000 pigeons.

More recently, Canada emerged as a main centre for pigeon-keeping more than a century ago. J.V. McAree of Toronto was the leading Canadian breeder of roller pigeons from 1905 until the 1940s, according to the National Pigeon Association. North American tippler pigeon history was made in Canada; the first importations were made in 1903 and in 1933, Doug Prudhomme of Ontario imported some of the most popular tippler breeds into Canada for the first time. Homing pigeons have been kept in Canada since the late 1800s.

More than 460 breeds of domestic pigeons are kept by hobbyists globally. Most of them have been generated through selective breeding in the past 150 years. Some of the most popular breeds are: tipplers, tumblers, rollers, homing pigeons, fantails, helmets and owls. Some breeds are kept for show. Others excel in long-distance endurance flying.

“Pigeons are acrobats of the air,” McAree once said.

There are several clubs for pigeon fanciers in Canada. The Canadian Pigeon Fanciers Association and Canadian Racing Pigeon Union are the largest. Recently, membership has reflected a significant demographic bias favouring hobbyists over 45 years of age.

According to the Canadian Pigeon Fanciers Association, individuals and families keep pigeons for the “pleasures, benefits, profits and rewards” that are generated by the birds.

“Some of us like to breed show pigeons with good pedigrees, birds of many types that are judged in national and local competitions,” said Bill Papas, who judges pigeon shows in British Columbia. “Others prefer to perfect aerial performers, flying pigeons with stamina and homing abilities.”

According to the New York Bird Club, people like pigeons mainly because they are “fascinating to watch, intelligent, affectionate toward their mates, bring life to cities, bring enjoyment to senior citizens, make great pets, eat harmful weed seeds, provide urban ambiance and because they are humankind’s oldest domesticated bird.”

In addition, pigeons have a history of carrying messages that dates to the time of Decimus Brutus who, in 44 BC, sent dispatches “to the consul’s camp tied to their feet,” according to Pliny. In the First World War, “carrier” pigeons were regularly used to send information among military officials; in the Second World War, homing pigeons were used extensively with the Confidential Pigeon Service, which carried vital messages in Europe for intelligence purposes. In 1850, pigeons were used to deliver news between several European cities, and in Australia, the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service carried messages in remote regions from 1898 to 1908.

Pigeons have been bred for human food for centuries and the white Canadian king pigeon, originally produced in Canada, is recognized as the best squab-producing breed in North America.

“Most of us would gladly donate pigeon to anyone who would like to get started,” said Nino Bugeja, an Ontario-based tippler breeder.

“A lot of parents might not want their kids having to look after a flock of pigeons these days because kids’ lives are already so full of many other things,” Aldridge suggested.

According to Robertson, there are many reasons for the ongoing decline in pigeon-keeping, but mainly “city bylaws and the use of technology by kids.”

Several Canadian municipalities have strict bylaws regarding pigeon lofts and the number of pigeons that may be kept. Recently, Kitchener put into place a bylaw regarding pigeon loft cleanliness.

“Local bylaws can really restrict how many pigeons may be kept and under what circumstances,” Aldridge said. “In some cases, keeping pigeons is outlawed altogether. Sometimes, neighbours object to people who keep pigeons and municipalities are forced to regulate the hobby.”

For decades, pigeon hobbyists have showed their most-prized pigeons at fairs, national and international exhibitions, vying for highly coveted recognition by event judges. One long-enduring pigeon show is the annual Vancouver Poultry and Fancy Pigeon Association fall fair. Such exhibitions date back to Roman times.

These days, most fanciers keep fewer than 100 pigeons and many keep fewer than 30. Some, such as homing pigeons and tipplers, excel at long-distance flying. The first homing pigeon races in North America took place in 1872. Formed in 1833, the Federation of Homing Pigeon Fanciers of America was one of the earliest North American pigeon clubs. Since then, some homing pigeons have completed long-distance flights of more than 2,700 kilometres.

“Some of my homers fly from Edmonton to Victoria, a distance of over 1,000 kilometres, in less than 22 hours,” Paulsen said.

Erroneously, domestic show and performance pigeons are often linked with feral urban pigeons on the unwarranted belief feral pigeons are escaped domestic birds. But, that is not the case. Feral urban pigeons are the descendants of wild pigeons that originally lived on cliff faces in Eurasia. All North American feral pigeons derived from urban pigeons brought to North America in the 1600s by early colonists and released intentionally long before any domestic breeds occurred in the New World.

According to the Roman historian Aelian, feral urban pigeons have long plagued built-up areas and in Roman times, “in cities, they congregate with people, are extremely tame and swarm about people’s feet.” The birds have become recently contentious in several North American cities, for a variety of reasons primarily related to human health issues.

In Canada, according to Audubon Christmas Bird Count data, there are about 130,000 urban feral pigeons in 292 cities. Vancouver tops the list, with close to 8,000 pigeons. Winnipeg has close to 1,000.

Often, public opinion toward city pigeons is negative and the birds are sometimes called “flying rats, sky rats, gutter birds or flying ashtrays” owing to concerns they spread diseases and foul buildings and streets with their droppings. To some degree, those concerns are valid.

According to the New York Department of Health, “contact with pigeon droppings may be a human health risk.”

The University of Guelph’s Wildlife Disease Laboratory confirmed urban feral pigeons carry paramyxovirus in 1988. According to John Cooper of the British Royal College of Surgeons, who studied urban pigeons extensively, the birds carry chlamydiosis, salmonellosis, psuedotuberculosis, listeriosis and staphylococcus. They are also known to transmit histoplasmosis, cryptococcus and psittacosis.

According to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, feral urban pigeon numbers in Canada have increased steadily since 1966. Attempts to control feral urban pigeon numbers in North America have not been successful.

Feral urban pigeons have a unique legal status that dates back almost 2,000 years. According to the Justinian’s Corpus Juris (AD 250), feral pigeons are domestic birds, not wildlife. The Corpus Juris Secundum confirms that “pigeons bred in farmer’s barns are classified as poultry” and under British Common Law, the same rule applies to feral urban pigeons.

Robert Alison is a Victoria-based wildlife biologist and writer with a PhD in zoology.