July 11, 2019 • 30 mins
Sure, they nuzzled their way into Mike Tyson's heart (and Nikola Tesla; and Bert from Bert and Ernie!), but how intelligent are pigeons? Have scientists really trained the birds to read? Did they actually play a role in discovering the Big Bang? And why are they so darn good at finding their way home? Plus: are catfish their new nemesis?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
I guess what will? What's that mango? Did you hear
about that pigeon that's sold at auction for over a
million bucks? You know, I know you may find this surprising,
but I actually don't keep up with the world of
pigeon auctions. But seriously, that did somebody actually pay a
(00:24):
million dollars for a pigeon? It's actually slightly better than that.
Somebody paid one point four million dollars for a pigeon,
and they did it on this site. It's an auction
site called PIPPA, which is short for Pigeon Paradise, which
almost makes all of this better. But to be fair,
this was no ordinary bird. This high priced Belgian pigeon
is actually an esteemed champion racer and his name is Armando.
(00:48):
He's five years old. He's widely considered the best of
the best long distance pigeons in the world. So for
the buyer, having a champion bird as young as Armando
means plenty of chances to breed him and to hopefully
pass on his traits to future flyers. You know, I
actually don't think I realized that investing in pigeons could
be this lucrative. I know you should have got into
it years ago. Kid. Uh, most of us don't give
(01:10):
pigeons nearly as much credit as they deserve. I mean,
I mean, the ones we're used to seeing can look
drab or dirty. But the truth is, pigeons are exceptionally
smart animals and they've been using that brain power for
the good of mankind for thousands of years. So in
light of that, I thought we could use today's episode
to give pigeons their due finally, from their roles and
scientific breakthroughs to all the times they delivered mail for us.
(01:32):
So there's a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Y
(01:56):
Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and always I'm joined by my good friend
Mangesh Ticketer And on the other side of that soundproof
glass showing off his dance skills by doing the Kuku pigeon.
That's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil. And I have
to say Burt may have invented this dance and may
have made it famous on Sesame Street back in the seventies.
(02:17):
I think it was, but Tristan I don't know about you, Maga.
I feel like he's perfected it. He really has, you know,
gave actually sent me some research on this on doing
the pigeon And apparently in the original opening, Burt is
just hanging out watching home movies of pigeons projected on
his wall, and then a few seconds into the footage,
he tells the viewer, I love pigeons more than anything
else in the world besides oatmeal. And then he busts
(02:38):
out doing this whole choreograph, dancing and routine and and
I just remember any of that, but it sounds so good. Well,
I can't speak to his oatmeal obsession, but Bert's right
about pigeons. I mean, they are much cooler than we think.
Just as an example, I was reading this week that
pigeons are actually capable of understanding abstract concepts including space
(02:59):
and time. Are you with me on this? And it's
pretty interesting, So it's definitely not something that you'd guessed
just by looking at them. But a couple of years back,
there was this team of scientists at the University of
Iowa that showed just how smart pigeons really are. So
the team tested a group of pigeons by placing them
in front of computer screens, and then they would show
them one of two lines, either this six centimeter line
(03:21):
or a centimeter line, and each of the lines was
paired with its own symbol, So anytime the pigeons saw
a line, they were supposed to pick the symbol that
corresponded with the correct length. So whenever the birds got
it right, the scientists fed them this treat is a
way to reinforce that they had chosen, you know, the
correct answer on this, which shows that pigeons can tell
the difference between different line lens. But you said pigeons
(03:44):
perceived time as well, right, Yeah, So this is actually
where things get really interesting, because the scientists tested the
pigeons not only on the length of the lines, but
also on how long they were displayed for, so either
two seconds or eight seconds, and the results showed that
pigeons connect the incepts of space and time in this
really interesting way. So whenever the birds saw a short
(04:05):
line displayed for eight seconds, they would pick the symbol miant.
For a long line, because the line had been displayed
for a longer period of time, the pigeons actually judged
it to be longer in length. Than it really was.
And this way of thinking also persisted when the birds
were tested on long lines being displayed. So anytime the
pigeons saw a long line displayed for just two seconds,
(04:26):
they would pack the symbol mint for an eight second duration.
Because the line was longer in length, the pigeons thought
it existed for a greater amount of time. So that
would mean pigeons actually perceived time in relation to space, right,
which is what humans do, like using the number of
people in the line to gauge how long a weight
might be, for instance. Yeah, that's exactly right, and studies
have shown that elephants and a few other primates tend
(04:49):
to connect these concepts as well. The only thing weird
here is that pigeons actually lacked the part of the
brain that processes space and time that other animals have.
So pigeons are making these same abstract connections that we are,
but they're doing so through some other method that we
actually haven't figured out yet, which is pretty amazing. It
actually reminds me of this study I read about a
while back where this Japanese psychologist who's named Shigeru Watanabe,
(05:14):
he trained a bunch of pigeons to distinguish between paintings
done by Picasso and one's done by Monet, and the
birds got so good at recognizing the two different styles
that they could even sort out works of Cubism and
Impressionism done by other artists. I mean, it kind of
makes you wonder if they preferred one style over the
other when they were looking. I mean, it's funny because
the same researcher later conducted a different pigeon experiment where
(05:37):
he trained a group of them to judge the artwork
of elementary students. And apparently he showed the birds two
dozen paintings made by students in Tokyo, and he taught
the pigeons which of the paintings could be considered good
and which one should be labeled bad. I mean he
did this by by taking the grades assigned by the
school's teachers and a panel of other adults. And anyway,
once the pigeons had a grasp on what made a
(05:58):
good painting or a bad painting, they were presented ten
new paintings, and amazingly, the pigeons were able to correctly
identify which these paintings would get low marks by the panel.
And what's interesting is that the findings suggests that pigeons
can naturally categorize things based on shape, color, and even texture,
which is impressive because you know, not a lot of
other species have that trade. Yeah, that's true. I guess
(06:19):
it's one more unexpected thing we have in common with them, Right,
and this list keeps getting longer. Apparently there's one more thing.
Pigeons are the only non primates we know with ability
to recognize letters. So in a two thousand and sixteen
study this comes out of New Zealand, a team successfully
trained four pigeons to recognize dozens of English words, including
whether or not they were spelled correctly, and the smartest
(06:41):
pision in the group learned to staggering fifty eight words,
which it was able to distinguish from roughly a thousand
made up words. In contrast, the dullest pigeon, or maybe
the least motivated of these birds, still managed to build
an impressive twenty six word vocabulary during its time in
the lab. All right, so these birds weren't actually reading
the words right like they They didn't learn what the
words meant or anything. They just memorized what the words
(07:04):
look like. Is that right? Yeah, that's right? So they
didn't have the meanings of its just spellings. But you know,
while wild pigeons are smart enough that they can learn
all these neat tricks, it's not like they're ever really
called upon to be art critics in the wild. And
at the end of the day, it does sort of
seem like pigeons have all these powers of perception, but
maybe aren't living up to their potential in the wild.
I mean, but there's got to be a reason that
(07:25):
they're capability skills, wouldn't you think? Yeah, I mean it's
true biologically, but in all the experiments we mentioned, the
pigeons were kind of making distinctions based on things that
humans taught them, like impressionist art has all these features,
or the word banana looks and a spell like this. Yeah,
I mean, I can imagine there are cases where recognizing
visual patterns might help with pigeon, you know, forage for
(07:45):
food or a vata predator, Like maybe one notices their
nest isn't the way they left it and that tips
them off that something dangerous is in the area or
something like that. But going back to what you said
about humans guiding and rewarding pigeons behavior, what's funny is
that you know something we unconsciously do, like including outside
the laboratory setting. For instance, back in two thousand eleven,
(08:08):
there were these two researchers in Paris, and they discovered
that pigeons can remember the appearance and behavior of specific people.
So here's how it went. Over the course of multiple sessions,
these two researchers went to a local park and they
fed the same flock of pigeons. So the first time
they go out, one researcher fed the birds and then
just stood there while they ate this food, I mean,
(08:29):
while the other researcher put some food down and then
immediately turned hostile and chase the pigeons away. I'm sure
everybody else in the park was enjoying this. But the
researchers then repeated the experiment again and again, except during
the subsequent visits, neither of them chased away the pigeons.
And here's the thing. The pigeons actually remembered which researcher
(08:50):
had been nice to them and which one had showed
them away, And so whenever the researchers returned, the pigeons
continuously avoided that researcher who had shunned them. In the
first place, even though he hadn't done anything like that
on any other occasion. That's pretty interesting. So what kind
of like visual cues were the pigeons picking up, Like
was the hostile researcher bigger or more intimidating or facial
(09:12):
hair that, like, what what was the distinction? Yeah, when
I was reading about this that that was what I
had assumed as well, is that maybe one researcher just
look less threatening or was wearing more attractive color or
something like that. But they actually accounted for all of this.
In the experiment. The researchers were the same sex, age, build,
skin color, they dressed similarly. It's true that each wore
(09:34):
a different colored lab coat, but you know, I mean,
they also switched lab coats on different visits, and the
pigeons could still always tell which researcher had been hostile
on that first encounter. So the most likely explanation for this,
according to experts, is that pigeons recognize the researchers by
their faces. So not only does that show how pigeons
(09:55):
might use their perceptive powers in the wild, it also
shows that pigeons are really smart about which visual information
to keep track of like you know, take the different
colored lab codes for instance. It seems like the obvious
feature to remember, like since the lab code would have
you know, covered like of their body. But it's like
our version of feathers, you would think at least. And
(10:17):
yet the pigeons zeroed in on the researchers facial traits,
which is something that couldn't easily be changed day to day.
And so according to these researchers, that distinction is likely
something pigeons have picked up on, you know, over their
years of living in cities and around other humans, which
makes a ton of sense. And I'm actually glad you're
bringing up that city connection. We we've talked a lot
(10:38):
so far about the science of pigeons, So what do
you say we change gears in and talk a little
pigeon history and how they came to cities in the
first place. That sounds good, But before we get into that,
let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
(11:02):
Genius and we're talking about all the amazing things you
never knew about the humble pigeon. And speaking of which,
one thing I was surprised to learn this week is
just how far back our relationship with pigeons actually go.
For instance, archaeologists have uncovered figurines, mosaics, and other works
of art depicting pigeons at dig sites in modern day
i Rock, and those artifacts are thought to date as
(11:23):
far back as b C. There's also evidence that pigeons
were a staple food in the Middle East and Europe
for thousands of years, and when you take all of
that together, it's likely that the common rock pigeon, which
is the species you find in most cities, may have
been the very first bird that humans domesticated. And if
I remember, did that happen mainly because pigeons were an
(11:44):
easy way to like source meat or something, well, I
think that was certainly their main appeal at first. Wild
game was often seen hard to come by in Mesopotamia,
so these protein rich rock pigeons would have been a
godsend in all likelihood, though some hungry ancient farmer probably
noticed the birds milling around his crops and decided it
would be better if he let the birds roost on
his farm rather than drive him away. But one of
(12:05):
the side effects from spending so much time in close
quarters was that humans started to take liking to the birds,
and not just the way they tasted. Against all odds,
humans started seeing reflections of their own humanity and pigeons,
for instance, Unlike other animals, the pigeons were monogamous and
couples working together to raise their offspring. They were seen
as intelligent and fiercely protective when necessary, but also peaceful
(12:28):
and calm when left to their own devices. And all
these cultures kind of adapted the pigeon as a religious
symbol or a deity as a result. For example, um,
there are three different goddesses that were symbolized by the pigeons, ishtar, Aphrodite,
and Venus, which spans Babylonia and Greece and and Roman culture.
And in Christian iconography, which I know a ton about,
(12:50):
the pision is used to represent the Holy Spirit, or
at least that's what I read now. I know we
probably have a lot of listeners thinking here that you're
getting your birds mixed up, because didn't those religions use
doves as symbols, not pigeons. So prepared to have your
mind blown, because scientifically speaking, the words dove and pigeon
refer to the same animal. Uh, they're actually one of
(13:13):
three eight different bird species in the Columbida family. All Right,
so you're telling me that the pure white dove, a
universal symbol of peace, is really just another kind of pigeon,
and vice versa. The gray rock pigeon you saw in
the park the other day is also known as a
rock dove. Al Right, So what about the birds themselves? Like,
how did every city in America wind up overrun by pigeons? Yeah,
(13:36):
I mean overrun is actually a good word for it.
Rock pigeons are actually an invasive species. They were originally
native only to Eurasia and northern Africa, but that changed
in the early sixteen hundreds when European settlers like the French,
introduced the birds to North America for the very first time,
and the domesticated birds have been brought along as a
source of food or in some cases, just to be
(13:56):
raised as a hobby. But somewhere along the way, many
of them escaped to cities and made new homes from
themselves on the ledges of buildings, which probably reminded them
of the cliffs back home that they nest in the
wild on. And from that point on, pigeons became a
fixture in American towns and cities really thriving in parts
because pigeons aren't picky eaters. They don't have special diets
(14:18):
like many other birds. So whatever trash or leftovers they
found on city streets that kind of suited their taste
just fine. Which I don't know why I always think
about this quote, but there was that thirty Rock line
where Tracy Jordan's sees a pigeon eating trash and he
just goes stop eating people's old French fries. Pigeon have
some self respect, don't you know? You can fly, which
(14:38):
is so good. But that lack of self respect has
benefited them over the years. Uh. The world pigeon population
is estimated at four million, with seven million pigeons living
in New York City alone. That's almost a bird for
every New Yorker minus the bronx. I was gonna say
the population in the areas about that, that's pretty crazy.
And all those birds in the US are descended on
(15:00):
that initial crop of European runaways. Yeah, they're they're all imported,
But to be fair, that wasn't always the case. So
when rock pigeons were first brought to American shores in
the seventeenth century, the content actually had its own thriving
indigenous pigeon species, and that's the passenger pigeon. And according
to Mental Flass, as many as five billion passenger pigeons
(15:20):
lived here during the colonial era, accounting for somewhere between
twenty five of all birds in the entire country. However,
as you probably know, that's not the case anymore. Over.
Hunting and habitat loss, all of that kind of brought
an end to the passenger pigeon in the early twentieth century,
with the last of their kind, this domesticated female named Martha,
(15:41):
passing away In all right, this is probably the strangest
transition that I'm going to make today, but you queued
it up so nicely for me. So, speaking of dead pigeons,
one thing I've always wondered is, if New York is
so chock full of them, then how are there not
dead ones everywhere you look like? At least, not that
I'm complaining about this, but if you're thought about that,
you know I I haven't thought about it. But but
(16:02):
now I'm curious what you learned, Like, did you get
an answer for this? Well, it turns out that pigeon
corpses really are something of a rarity in American cities,
and the biggest reason for this is that the sheer
number of predators that pigeons are up against in urban
areas is greater than you would think. Like, as someone
at the Smithsonian Ones put it, rats, cats, raccoons, foxes, possums,
(16:24):
they all love them. Some pigeon is what they said.
That is Sacha Smithsonian thing, so Smithsonian. So you're saying
most pigeons get eaten up by predators, But what about
like the old timers. I mean, there have to be
some pigeons that make it to old age. So where
did those guys end up? Well, you're definitely talking about
the minority here. I mean, most wild pigeons survive for
(16:44):
five or six years on average, and it's compared to
fifteen years or even longer in captivity. So the ones
that aren't eaten, like the lucky ones, who have a
lot more control over their debts, they tend to choose
these peaceful nooks and crannies for their final resting places.
So maybe the air ducts of a building or the
corner ledge of a skyscraper some whether it's you know,
not quite as visible. So I guess it really does
(17:06):
depend on where you look. Yeah, I mean, you've got
to really want to find a dead pigeon. I guess
it's a heck of a scavenger hunt. But you know,
the whole time we've been talking about this, I I
keep thinking of that story about Nixon's inaugurations. Do you
remember this one? I don't think I do remember this
Affairly had a tough go at his first inauguration in
nineteen six nine, like the Vietnam War was in full swing,
(17:29):
and Nixon's motorcade wound up being pelted with tomatoes and rocks.
So when his second inauguration came around in seventy three,
Nixon remembered how messy things had gotten the last time,
and he wanted to take every possible precaution to avoid
another embarrassment. And this is how far he went. Right.
He had his people paint the branches of trees along
the parade route with this special chemical called roost no more.
(17:53):
It was this gooey chemical that was supposed to make
a pigeon's feet so itchy that it one't want to
above the motor kid, I guess. And yeah, and obviously
he was trying to avoid um droppings falling on the car.
But as you can probably tell about the fact that
I'm telling you this story, things did not go as planned.
So for starters, the pigeons didn't mind their itchiness of
(18:14):
roost no more, I guess. And what's worse, they didn't
mind the taste of it either. So so many pigeons
ate this highly toxic paste that the day of the parade,
the entire route was like littered with dozens of dead
and dying pigeons, which is so much worse than dirty windshields,
No kidding. Can you imagine being there? That would have
been weird? All right. Well, now that we've seen the
(18:36):
time when pigeons and humans didn't get along so well,
I feel like we should take a look at a
few examples of the opposite, you know, the times when
pigeons and people lived in perfect harmony. Yeah, let's do that,
But first another break. Welcome back to part time genius Samango.
(19:03):
I know it can be dicey to try and pin
down the etymology of a phrase. Any idiom you think
of can probably have a half dozen or so false
origin stories, But there is one that I came across
this week that was just too interesting not to talk
about it. So you've heard the term stool pigeon before, right,
like an informer or rat or whatever. That's right. And
(19:23):
it's kind of a strange phrase when you think about it,
because number one, how does the stool fit into any
of this? And number two, pigeons aren't that talkative, and
you know, as far as birds go, they're actually pretty quiet.
So I hadn't thought about this before, but I'm pretty
curious where does the term actually come from. Well, the
working theory is that the phrases this throwback to an
old sixteenth century hunting practice where pigeons were used as
(19:46):
decoys to lure in larger birds. As for the stool part,
there are a couple of options here. One is that
these decoy pigeons were tied to actual stools, like the
idea of being that the live pigeon would flutter in
place catch the eye of these other animals. And then
the other option is that stool is really a corruption
(20:06):
of this word stole, which is an old word for
tree stump. It's spelled s t o a l e.
And in either case, though, the stool was whatever you
tie the decoy pigeon too. And then sometime in the
mid eighteen hundreds of Americans started applying the term to
a different type of decoy. Those would be these police
informers who hung around the criminal world or the criminal underworld.
(20:28):
Really and I'm not sure who first made that connection
or why, but that does seem to be where it
might have come from. Well, pigeons may not be very
talkative themselves, but they are pretty amazing when it comes
to delivering other people's messages. And that's thanks to their
innate sense of direction. You know, pigeons can find their
way back home from pretty much anywhere, even if scientists
still haven't figured out how they do it. Yeah. I
(20:50):
actually remember we covered some of these theories way back
in that Superhero Animal episode, So if you guys are
curious about that, definitely check it out. Definitely. And and uh,
despite all the mystery around their navigational skills, the reality
is that humans have been using pigeons as messengers since
at least as far back as three thousand b c. UH.
(21:10):
The ancient Greeks used trained pigeons to communicate the results
of the Olympics, and as you might recall from our
genghis Kan episode, the Mongols developed a whole pigeon based
postal system to help connect the growing empire. Yeah, and
from what I was reading this week, they weren't the
only ones who put pigeons in charge of their posts.
So the birds were apparently used to carry mail in
the Middle East. This was as far back as the
(21:32):
fifth century b c. And pigeon posts still existed in
some regions until as recently as the early twentieth century.
You take New Zealand's Great Barrier Island for instance. They
relied on a handful of competing pigeon postal services for
the better part of a decade in the late eighteen hundreds,
and since the island is about sixty miles away from
the mainland, train pigeons were the fastest way for residents
(21:55):
to communicate back and forth. They even issued these special
stamps that were only valid for pigeon post and incidentally,
they're believed to be the first examples of air mail
stamps in the world. So what about telegraphs, though, weren't
those around in the late They were, But you know,
even with that, service was spotty, and the birds were
pretty resilient. Like in wartime telegraph wires could be easily
(22:18):
cut and you never knew, you know, who might be
listening in on this, you know, if they were kind
of tapping the line or something. So pigeon messengers became
this crucial means of communication. Actually, one famous instance comes
from a carrier pigeon named share on Me that flew
for the U. S. Army in France. This was back
during World War One. Now, Sharemy delivered twelve important messages
(22:39):
during his military career, but on his final mission, this
was October of nine, the pigeon was shot, actually shot
both in the breast and the lag by enemy fire.
And despite this injury, Sharemy flew back to his roost
with the message capsule still tied to his wounded leg.
It's just unbelievable, which is crazy, But what the message though.
(23:00):
It was from a battalion of a hundred and ninety
four soldiers who had been isolated from other American forces
and people just assumed that they were dead. And so
thanks to share on Me, the army learned of the
soldiers whereabouts and they were able to get them to
safety back behind American lines. And I mean, I know
in the bird's mind he wasn't trying to rescue a
(23:20):
bunch of soldiers. He just wanted to make it back
home alive. But I mean, it's still pretty incredible. I mean,
it is a little surprising. The enemies were like clever
enough to slice telegraph wires, but they didn't think to
like bring in a few hawks to like feed on
the pigeons and disrupt the communication. It feels like a
similar solution. But you know, here's another thing I had
no idea about until this episode. Do you know that
(23:40):
two pigeons unknowingly helped establish the Big Bang theory. I
hate to ask this question, what are we talking about
the sitcom or like the model of the universe, because
one of these seems way more plausible than the other,
so weirdly, it is the ladder. Before I get into
how the pigeons fit into this, let let me give
some quick background. So back to scientists in New Jersey.
(24:02):
Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias were experimenting with their radio
telescope and they were trying to measure the minimum brightness
of the sky. But to their dismay, something was interfering
with their readings and whatever it was, it was producing
a pronounced hissing noise now spoilers. What they actually heard
that day was an ancient cosmic background radiation, or as
(24:24):
Smithsonian calls it, quote, an echo of the universe at
a very early moment after its birth. So, although they
didn't know this at the time, Wilson and Penzias had
just found what would ultimately become the first proof for
the Big Bang theory. And in the moment, though the
men weren't sure what they were hearing. They thought it
could be a stray signal from nearby New York, or
maybe their equipment was faulty. It really could have been anything,
(24:46):
but at one point the most likely suspects were actually
a couple of pigeons that had set up shop in
the antenna array, and when the scientists discovered the birds Ruth,
their hopes were dashed. It was starting to look like
this hissing sound was really just this embarrassing revelation that
it was a couple of pigeons mucking about their instruments.
(25:06):
I kind of love that this is what it boiled
down to, like it's either the afterglow of the birth
of the universe, or you know, some birds just go
into the bathroom. It's one of the other who knows,
I know, but Wilson and Fansias couldn't rule it out,
like they had to get to the bottom of this.
And so here's how Robert Wilson later described what they did. Quote,
we took the pigeons, put them in a box and
mailed them as far away as we could in the
(25:28):
company mail to a guy who fancied pigeons. He looked
at them and said, these are junk pigeons and let
them go. But before long they were right back again. Wait,
so the same pigeons came back and like after being
mailed across the country. Yeah, because they have those homing
systems so they can find their way back from thousands
of miles away or whatever. But you know, thankfully the
scientists were eventually able to get the array cleaned out,
(25:50):
and after a year or so of experiments, they concluded
that the hiss they heard was indeed cosmic radiation and
not defecating pigeons. The birds confusing contra ribution to history, though,
hasn't been forgotten. And if you go to the Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum today you can see the actual
metal trap that Wilson and Penzi has used to trap
the squatter pigeons some fifty five years ago. That is
(26:11):
quite the honor, and I feel like a well deserved one.
So what do you say we end on that note
and get right into the fact off. So here's a
quick one. Because birds such as pigeons have a much
higher threshold for detecting movement, they would likely see a
(26:33):
movie shown at today's industry rate as a series of
flashing slides like the frames we use. Twenty four frames
per second is fast enough to give the illusion of
fluid movement to our eyes, but pigeon vision has to
be able to see signs of fast moving prey, so
twenty four frames per second is just way too slow
for the birds to perceive. All right, Well, pigeon vision
maybe based on ultra quick movement, But do you know
(26:55):
what's even faster than a pigeon? Mango? A lot of things, Okay, yeah,
a lot of things are, But I was specifically talking
here about bees because apparently back in a pigeon fans
here and beekeeper had this friendly little contest in Germany.
They challenged each other's pet of choice to this grueling
three and a half mile race, and wouldn't you know it,
(27:18):
the b one by a full twenty five seconds. That
is impressive, But I mostly want to know how this
contest happened in the first place, Like how board must
these guys have been to like organize a race like that?
It's in a question strange but okay, Sin, Since we're
on the subject of pigeon losses, I have to tell
you that there are catfish in France that have learned
(27:38):
to lunge out of the water in an effort to
hunt pigeons. And while the catfish aren't the most adept
hunters on land as you might imagine, they do pretty
well for themselves in the water, and their success rate
of catching pigeons is an impressive twenty eight percent. That's
a lot higher than I would have guessed, to be
honest with you. Since we're talking pigeons, I couldn't leave
the episode without, of course talking about Nicolette Huslam, who
(28:00):
you might remember was totally obsessed with pigeons. I feel
like that fact always has to come up here with
and one female pigeon in particular, so Tesla one set
of her. I love that pigeon as a man loves
a woman, and she loved me as long as I
had her. There was a purpose to my life such romance.
You know, I was looking up scientists and pigeons this
(28:22):
week too, And one thing I didn't realize was Darwin
was also obsessed with pigeons. He belonged to a London
fancy pigeon club, and he owned a flock, and in fact,
mental Flass reports his nine book The Variation of Animals
and Plants under Domestication has two full chapters on pigeons. Meanwhile,
dogs and cats share a single chapter. That seems that
(28:45):
seems fair. So all right, well, here's what I really like.
This artist named Laurel roth Hope Crochet's suits for urban Pigeons. Well,
I already like where this is going. Tell me more. Well,
she basically creates these disguises that pige can wear to
look like extinct birds. It's basically, you know, causeplay for pigeons,
I guess, But I guess it's also to raise awareness
(29:08):
for what our parks could have looked like if we
were a little more careful with nature. I like the idea,
and I do hope I get to see some of
these extinct not extinct birds in the city. And I
like the fact so I'm gonna give it to you
this week. Well, thank you so much, and it definitely
wasn't easy, but I kind of like that fact. But
that does it for today's episode of part Time Genius
from Gay Tristan, Mango, Lowell, and me. Thanks so much
(29:31):
for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of I
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
(29:53):
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
I guess what will? What's that mango? Did you hear
about that pigeon that's sold at auction for over a
million bucks? You know, I know you may find this surprising,
but I actually don't keep up with the world of
pigeon auctions. But seriously, that did somebody actually pay a
(00:24):
million dollars for a pigeon? It's actually slightly better than that.
Somebody paid one point four million dollars for a pigeon,
and they did it on this site. It's an auction
site called PIPPA, which is short for Pigeon Paradise, which
almost makes all of this better. But to be fair,
this was no ordinary bird. This high priced Belgian pigeon
is actually an esteemed champion racer and his name is Armando.
(00:48):
He's five years old. He's widely considered the best of
the best long distance pigeons in the world. So for
the buyer, having a champion bird as young as Armando
means plenty of chances to breed him and to hopefully
pass on his traits to future flyers. You know, I
actually don't think I realized that investing in pigeons could
be this lucrative. I know you should have got into
it years ago. Kid. Uh, most of us don't give
(01:10):
pigeons nearly as much credit as they deserve. I mean,
I mean, the ones we're used to seeing can look
drab or dirty. But the truth is, pigeons are exceptionally
smart animals and they've been using that brain power for
the good of mankind for thousands of years. So in
light of that, I thought we could use today's episode
to give pigeons their due finally, from their roles and
scientific breakthroughs to all the times they delivered mail for us.
(01:32):
So there's a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Y
(01:56):
Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and always I'm joined by my good friend
Mangesh Ticketer And on the other side of that soundproof
glass showing off his dance skills by doing the Kuku pigeon.
That's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil. And I have
to say Burt may have invented this dance and may
have made it famous on Sesame Street back in the seventies.
(02:17):
I think it was, but Tristan I don't know about you, Maga.
I feel like he's perfected it. He really has, you know,
gave actually sent me some research on this on doing
the pigeon And apparently in the original opening, Burt is
just hanging out watching home movies of pigeons projected on
his wall, and then a few seconds into the footage,
he tells the viewer, I love pigeons more than anything
else in the world besides oatmeal. And then he busts
(02:38):
out doing this whole choreograph, dancing and routine and and
I just remember any of that, but it sounds so good. Well,
I can't speak to his oatmeal obsession, but Bert's right
about pigeons. I mean, they are much cooler than we think.
Just as an example, I was reading this week that
pigeons are actually capable of understanding abstract concepts including space
(02:59):
and time. Are you with me on this? And it's
pretty interesting, So it's definitely not something that you'd guessed
just by looking at them. But a couple of years back,
there was this team of scientists at the University of
Iowa that showed just how smart pigeons really are. So
the team tested a group of pigeons by placing them
in front of computer screens, and then they would show
them one of two lines, either this six centimeter line
(03:21):
or a centimeter line, and each of the lines was
paired with its own symbol, So anytime the pigeons saw
a line, they were supposed to pick the symbol that
corresponded with the correct length. So whenever the birds got
it right, the scientists fed them this treat is a
way to reinforce that they had chosen, you know, the
correct answer on this, which shows that pigeons can tell
the difference between different line lens. But you said pigeons
(03:44):
perceived time as well, right, Yeah, So this is actually
where things get really interesting, because the scientists tested the
pigeons not only on the length of the lines, but
also on how long they were displayed for, so either
two seconds or eight seconds, and the results showed that
pigeons connect the incepts of space and time in this
really interesting way. So whenever the birds saw a short
(04:05):
line displayed for eight seconds, they would pick the symbol miant.
For a long line, because the line had been displayed
for a longer period of time, the pigeons actually judged
it to be longer in length. Than it really was.
And this way of thinking also persisted when the birds
were tested on long lines being displayed. So anytime the
pigeons saw a long line displayed for just two seconds,
(04:26):
they would pack the symbol mint for an eight second duration.
Because the line was longer in length, the pigeons thought
it existed for a greater amount of time. So that
would mean pigeons actually perceived time in relation to space, right,
which is what humans do, like using the number of
people in the line to gauge how long a weight
might be, for instance. Yeah, that's exactly right, and studies
have shown that elephants and a few other primates tend
(04:49):
to connect these concepts as well. The only thing weird
here is that pigeons actually lacked the part of the
brain that processes space and time that other animals have.
So pigeons are making these same abstract connections that we are,
but they're doing so through some other method that we
actually haven't figured out yet, which is pretty amazing. It
actually reminds me of this study I read about a
while back where this Japanese psychologist who's named Shigeru Watanabe,
(05:14):
he trained a bunch of pigeons to distinguish between paintings
done by Picasso and one's done by Monet, and the
birds got so good at recognizing the two different styles
that they could even sort out works of Cubism and
Impressionism done by other artists. I mean, it kind of
makes you wonder if they preferred one style over the
other when they were looking. I mean, it's funny because
the same researcher later conducted a different pigeon experiment where
(05:37):
he trained a group of them to judge the artwork
of elementary students. And apparently he showed the birds two
dozen paintings made by students in Tokyo, and he taught
the pigeons which of the paintings could be considered good
and which one should be labeled bad. I mean he
did this by by taking the grades assigned by the
school's teachers and a panel of other adults. And anyway,
once the pigeons had a grasp on what made a
(05:58):
good painting or a bad painting, they were presented ten
new paintings, and amazingly, the pigeons were able to correctly
identify which these paintings would get low marks by the panel.
And what's interesting is that the findings suggests that pigeons
can naturally categorize things based on shape, color, and even texture,
which is impressive because you know, not a lot of
other species have that trade. Yeah, that's true. I guess
(06:19):
it's one more unexpected thing we have in common with them, Right,
and this list keeps getting longer. Apparently there's one more thing.
Pigeons are the only non primates we know with ability
to recognize letters. So in a two thousand and sixteen
study this comes out of New Zealand, a team successfully
trained four pigeons to recognize dozens of English words, including
whether or not they were spelled correctly, and the smartest
(06:41):
pision in the group learned to staggering fifty eight words,
which it was able to distinguish from roughly a thousand
made up words. In contrast, the dullest pigeon, or maybe
the least motivated of these birds, still managed to build
an impressive twenty six word vocabulary during its time in
the lab. All right, so these birds weren't actually reading
the words right like they They didn't learn what the
words meant or anything. They just memorized what the words
(07:04):
look like. Is that right? Yeah, that's right? So they
didn't have the meanings of its just spellings. But you know,
while wild pigeons are smart enough that they can learn
all these neat tricks, it's not like they're ever really
called upon to be art critics in the wild. And
at the end of the day, it does sort of
seem like pigeons have all these powers of perception, but
maybe aren't living up to their potential in the wild.
I mean, but there's got to be a reason that
(07:25):
they're capability skills, wouldn't you think? Yeah, I mean it's
true biologically, but in all the experiments we mentioned, the
pigeons were kind of making distinctions based on things that
humans taught them, like impressionist art has all these features,
or the word banana looks and a spell like this. Yeah,
I mean, I can imagine there are cases where recognizing
visual patterns might help with pigeon, you know, forage for
(07:45):
food or a vata predator, Like maybe one notices their
nest isn't the way they left it and that tips
them off that something dangerous is in the area or
something like that. But going back to what you said
about humans guiding and rewarding pigeons behavior, what's funny is
that you know something we unconsciously do, like including outside
the laboratory setting. For instance, back in two thousand eleven,
(08:08):
there were these two researchers in Paris, and they discovered
that pigeons can remember the appearance and behavior of specific people.
So here's how it went. Over the course of multiple sessions,
these two researchers went to a local park and they
fed the same flock of pigeons. So the first time
they go out, one researcher fed the birds and then
just stood there while they ate this food, I mean,
(08:29):
while the other researcher put some food down and then
immediately turned hostile and chase the pigeons away. I'm sure
everybody else in the park was enjoying this. But the
researchers then repeated the experiment again and again, except during
the subsequent visits, neither of them chased away the pigeons.
And here's the thing. The pigeons actually remembered which researcher
(08:50):
had been nice to them and which one had showed
them away, And so whenever the researchers returned, the pigeons
continuously avoided that researcher who had shunned them. In the
first place, even though he hadn't done anything like that
on any other occasion. That's pretty interesting. So what kind
of like visual cues were the pigeons picking up, Like
was the hostile researcher bigger or more intimidating or facial
(09:12):
hair that, like, what what was the distinction? Yeah, when
I was reading about this that that was what I
had assumed as well, is that maybe one researcher just
look less threatening or was wearing more attractive color or
something like that. But they actually accounted for all of this.
In the experiment. The researchers were the same sex, age, build,
skin color, they dressed similarly. It's true that each wore
(09:34):
a different colored lab coat, but you know, I mean,
they also switched lab coats on different visits, and the
pigeons could still always tell which researcher had been hostile
on that first encounter. So the most likely explanation for this,
according to experts, is that pigeons recognize the researchers by
their faces. So not only does that show how pigeons
(09:55):
might use their perceptive powers in the wild, it also
shows that pigeons are really smart about which visual information
to keep track of like you know, take the different
colored lab codes for instance. It seems like the obvious
feature to remember, like since the lab code would have
you know, covered like of their body. But it's like
our version of feathers, you would think at least. And
(10:17):
yet the pigeons zeroed in on the researchers facial traits,
which is something that couldn't easily be changed day to day.
And so according to these researchers, that distinction is likely
something pigeons have picked up on, you know, over their
years of living in cities and around other humans, which
makes a ton of sense. And I'm actually glad you're
bringing up that city connection. We we've talked a lot
(10:38):
so far about the science of pigeons, So what do
you say we change gears in and talk a little
pigeon history and how they came to cities in the
first place. That sounds good, But before we get into that,
let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
(11:02):
Genius and we're talking about all the amazing things you
never knew about the humble pigeon. And speaking of which,
one thing I was surprised to learn this week is
just how far back our relationship with pigeons actually go.
For instance, archaeologists have uncovered figurines, mosaics, and other works
of art depicting pigeons at dig sites in modern day
i Rock, and those artifacts are thought to date as
(11:23):
far back as b C. There's also evidence that pigeons
were a staple food in the Middle East and Europe
for thousands of years, and when you take all of
that together, it's likely that the common rock pigeon, which
is the species you find in most cities, may have
been the very first bird that humans domesticated. And if
I remember, did that happen mainly because pigeons were an
(11:44):
easy way to like source meat or something, well, I
think that was certainly their main appeal at first. Wild
game was often seen hard to come by in Mesopotamia,
so these protein rich rock pigeons would have been a
godsend in all likelihood, though some hungry ancient farmer probably
noticed the birds milling around his crops and decided it
would be better if he let the birds roost on
his farm rather than drive him away. But one of
(12:05):
the side effects from spending so much time in close
quarters was that humans started to take liking to the birds,
and not just the way they tasted. Against all odds,
humans started seeing reflections of their own humanity and pigeons,
for instance, Unlike other animals, the pigeons were monogamous and
couples working together to raise their offspring. They were seen
as intelligent and fiercely protective when necessary, but also peaceful
(12:28):
and calm when left to their own devices. And all
these cultures kind of adapted the pigeon as a religious
symbol or a deity as a result. For example, um,
there are three different goddesses that were symbolized by the pigeons, ishtar, Aphrodite,
and Venus, which spans Babylonia and Greece and and Roman culture.
And in Christian iconography, which I know a ton about,
(12:50):
the pision is used to represent the Holy Spirit, or
at least that's what I read now. I know we
probably have a lot of listeners thinking here that you're
getting your birds mixed up, because didn't those religions use
doves as symbols, not pigeons. So prepared to have your
mind blown, because scientifically speaking, the words dove and pigeon
refer to the same animal. Uh, they're actually one of
(13:13):
three eight different bird species in the Columbida family. All Right,
so you're telling me that the pure white dove, a
universal symbol of peace, is really just another kind of pigeon,
and vice versa. The gray rock pigeon you saw in
the park the other day is also known as a
rock dove. Al Right, So what about the birds themselves? Like,
how did every city in America wind up overrun by pigeons? Yeah,
(13:36):
I mean overrun is actually a good word for it.
Rock pigeons are actually an invasive species. They were originally
native only to Eurasia and northern Africa, but that changed
in the early sixteen hundreds when European settlers like the French,
introduced the birds to North America for the very first time,
and the domesticated birds have been brought along as a
source of food or in some cases, just to be
(13:56):
raised as a hobby. But somewhere along the way, many
of them escaped to cities and made new homes from
themselves on the ledges of buildings, which probably reminded them
of the cliffs back home that they nest in the
wild on. And from that point on, pigeons became a
fixture in American towns and cities really thriving in parts
because pigeons aren't picky eaters. They don't have special diets
(14:18):
like many other birds. So whatever trash or leftovers they
found on city streets that kind of suited their taste
just fine. Which I don't know why I always think
about this quote, but there was that thirty Rock line
where Tracy Jordan's sees a pigeon eating trash and he
just goes stop eating people's old French fries. Pigeon have
some self respect, don't you know? You can fly, which
(14:38):
is so good. But that lack of self respect has
benefited them over the years. Uh. The world pigeon population
is estimated at four million, with seven million pigeons living
in New York City alone. That's almost a bird for
every New Yorker minus the bronx. I was gonna say
the population in the areas about that, that's pretty crazy.
And all those birds in the US are descended on
(15:00):
that initial crop of European runaways. Yeah, they're they're all imported,
But to be fair, that wasn't always the case. So
when rock pigeons were first brought to American shores in
the seventeenth century, the content actually had its own thriving
indigenous pigeon species, and that's the passenger pigeon. And according
to Mental Flass, as many as five billion passenger pigeons
(15:20):
lived here during the colonial era, accounting for somewhere between
twenty five of all birds in the entire country. However,
as you probably know, that's not the case anymore. Over.
Hunting and habitat loss, all of that kind of brought
an end to the passenger pigeon in the early twentieth century,
with the last of their kind, this domesticated female named Martha,
(15:41):
passing away In all right, this is probably the strangest
transition that I'm going to make today, but you queued
it up so nicely for me. So, speaking of dead pigeons,
one thing I've always wondered is, if New York is
so chock full of them, then how are there not
dead ones everywhere you look like? At least, not that
I'm complaining about this, but if you're thought about that,
you know I I haven't thought about it. But but
(16:02):
now I'm curious what you learned, Like, did you get
an answer for this? Well, it turns out that pigeon
corpses really are something of a rarity in American cities,
and the biggest reason for this is that the sheer
number of predators that pigeons are up against in urban
areas is greater than you would think. Like, as someone
at the Smithsonian Ones put it, rats, cats, raccoons, foxes, possums,
(16:24):
they all love them. Some pigeon is what they said.
That is Sacha Smithsonian thing, so Smithsonian. So you're saying
most pigeons get eaten up by predators, But what about
like the old timers. I mean, there have to be
some pigeons that make it to old age. So where
did those guys end up? Well, you're definitely talking about
the minority here. I mean, most wild pigeons survive for
(16:44):
five or six years on average, and it's compared to
fifteen years or even longer in captivity. So the ones
that aren't eaten, like the lucky ones, who have a
lot more control over their debts, they tend to choose
these peaceful nooks and crannies for their final resting places.
So maybe the air ducts of a building or the
corner ledge of a skyscraper some whether it's you know,
not quite as visible. So I guess it really does
(17:06):
depend on where you look. Yeah, I mean, you've got
to really want to find a dead pigeon. I guess
it's a heck of a scavenger hunt. But you know,
the whole time we've been talking about this, I I
keep thinking of that story about Nixon's inaugurations. Do you
remember this one? I don't think I do remember this
Affairly had a tough go at his first inauguration in
nineteen six nine, like the Vietnam War was in full swing,
(17:29):
and Nixon's motorcade wound up being pelted with tomatoes and rocks.
So when his second inauguration came around in seventy three,
Nixon remembered how messy things had gotten the last time,
and he wanted to take every possible precaution to avoid
another embarrassment. And this is how far he went. Right.
He had his people paint the branches of trees along
the parade route with this special chemical called roost no more.
(17:53):
It was this gooey chemical that was supposed to make
a pigeon's feet so itchy that it one't want to
above the motor kid, I guess. And yeah, and obviously
he was trying to avoid um droppings falling on the car.
But as you can probably tell about the fact that
I'm telling you this story, things did not go as planned.
So for starters, the pigeons didn't mind their itchiness of
(18:14):
roost no more, I guess. And what's worse, they didn't
mind the taste of it either. So so many pigeons
ate this highly toxic paste that the day of the parade,
the entire route was like littered with dozens of dead
and dying pigeons, which is so much worse than dirty windshields,
No kidding. Can you imagine being there? That would have
been weird? All right. Well, now that we've seen the
(18:36):
time when pigeons and humans didn't get along so well,
I feel like we should take a look at a
few examples of the opposite, you know, the times when
pigeons and people lived in perfect harmony. Yeah, let's do that,
But first another break. Welcome back to part time genius Samango.
(19:03):
I know it can be dicey to try and pin
down the etymology of a phrase. Any idiom you think
of can probably have a half dozen or so false
origin stories, But there is one that I came across
this week that was just too interesting not to talk
about it. So you've heard the term stool pigeon before, right,
like an informer or rat or whatever. That's right. And
(19:23):
it's kind of a strange phrase when you think about it,
because number one, how does the stool fit into any
of this? And number two, pigeons aren't that talkative, and
you know, as far as birds go, they're actually pretty quiet.
So I hadn't thought about this before, but I'm pretty
curious where does the term actually come from. Well, the
working theory is that the phrases this throwback to an
old sixteenth century hunting practice where pigeons were used as
(19:46):
decoys to lure in larger birds. As for the stool part,
there are a couple of options here. One is that
these decoy pigeons were tied to actual stools, like the
idea of being that the live pigeon would flutter in
place catch the eye of these other animals. And then
the other option is that stool is really a corruption
(20:06):
of this word stole, which is an old word for
tree stump. It's spelled s t o a l e.
And in either case, though, the stool was whatever you
tie the decoy pigeon too. And then sometime in the
mid eighteen hundreds of Americans started applying the term to
a different type of decoy. Those would be these police
informers who hung around the criminal world or the criminal underworld.
(20:28):
Really and I'm not sure who first made that connection
or why, but that does seem to be where it
might have come from. Well, pigeons may not be very
talkative themselves, but they are pretty amazing when it comes
to delivering other people's messages. And that's thanks to their
innate sense of direction. You know, pigeons can find their
way back home from pretty much anywhere, even if scientists
still haven't figured out how they do it. Yeah. I
(20:50):
actually remember we covered some of these theories way back
in that Superhero Animal episode, So if you guys are
curious about that, definitely check it out. Definitely. And and uh,
despite all the mystery around their navigational skills, the reality
is that humans have been using pigeons as messengers since
at least as far back as three thousand b c. UH.
(21:10):
The ancient Greeks used trained pigeons to communicate the results
of the Olympics, and as you might recall from our
genghis Kan episode, the Mongols developed a whole pigeon based
postal system to help connect the growing empire. Yeah, and
from what I was reading this week, they weren't the
only ones who put pigeons in charge of their posts.
So the birds were apparently used to carry mail in
the Middle East. This was as far back as the
(21:32):
fifth century b c. And pigeon posts still existed in
some regions until as recently as the early twentieth century.
You take New Zealand's Great Barrier Island for instance. They
relied on a handful of competing pigeon postal services for
the better part of a decade in the late eighteen hundreds,
and since the island is about sixty miles away from
the mainland, train pigeons were the fastest way for residents
(21:55):
to communicate back and forth. They even issued these special
stamps that were only valid for pigeon post and incidentally,
they're believed to be the first examples of air mail
stamps in the world. So what about telegraphs, though, weren't
those around in the late They were, But you know,
even with that, service was spotty, and the birds were
pretty resilient. Like in wartime telegraph wires could be easily
(22:18):
cut and you never knew, you know, who might be
listening in on this, you know, if they were kind
of tapping the line or something. So pigeon messengers became
this crucial means of communication. Actually, one famous instance comes
from a carrier pigeon named share on Me that flew
for the U. S. Army in France. This was back
during World War One. Now, Sharemy delivered twelve important messages
(22:39):
during his military career, but on his final mission, this
was October of nine, the pigeon was shot, actually shot
both in the breast and the lag by enemy fire.
And despite this injury, Sharemy flew back to his roost
with the message capsule still tied to his wounded leg.
It's just unbelievable, which is crazy, But what the message though.
(23:00):
It was from a battalion of a hundred and ninety
four soldiers who had been isolated from other American forces
and people just assumed that they were dead. And so
thanks to share on Me, the army learned of the
soldiers whereabouts and they were able to get them to
safety back behind American lines. And I mean, I know
in the bird's mind he wasn't trying to rescue a
(23:20):
bunch of soldiers. He just wanted to make it back
home alive. But I mean, it's still pretty incredible. I mean,
it is a little surprising. The enemies were like clever
enough to slice telegraph wires, but they didn't think to
like bring in a few hawks to like feed on
the pigeons and disrupt the communication. It feels like a
similar solution. But you know, here's another thing I had
no idea about until this episode. Do you know that
(23:40):
two pigeons unknowingly helped establish the Big Bang theory. I
hate to ask this question, what are we talking about
the sitcom or like the model of the universe, because
one of these seems way more plausible than the other,
so weirdly, it is the ladder. Before I get into
how the pigeons fit into this, let let me give
some quick background. So back to scientists in New Jersey.
(24:02):
Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias were experimenting with their radio
telescope and they were trying to measure the minimum brightness
of the sky. But to their dismay, something was interfering
with their readings and whatever it was, it was producing
a pronounced hissing noise now spoilers. What they actually heard
that day was an ancient cosmic background radiation, or as
(24:24):
Smithsonian calls it, quote, an echo of the universe at
a very early moment after its birth. So, although they
didn't know this at the time, Wilson and Penzias had
just found what would ultimately become the first proof for
the Big Bang theory. And in the moment, though the
men weren't sure what they were hearing. They thought it
could be a stray signal from nearby New York, or
maybe their equipment was faulty. It really could have been anything,
(24:46):
but at one point the most likely suspects were actually
a couple of pigeons that had set up shop in
the antenna array, and when the scientists discovered the birds Ruth,
their hopes were dashed. It was starting to look like
this hissing sound was really just this embarrassing revelation that
it was a couple of pigeons mucking about their instruments.
(25:06):
I kind of love that this is what it boiled
down to, like it's either the afterglow of the birth
of the universe, or you know, some birds just go
into the bathroom. It's one of the other who knows,
I know, but Wilson and Fansias couldn't rule it out,
like they had to get to the bottom of this.
And so here's how Robert Wilson later described what they did. Quote,
we took the pigeons, put them in a box and
mailed them as far away as we could in the
(25:28):
company mail to a guy who fancied pigeons. He looked
at them and said, these are junk pigeons and let
them go. But before long they were right back again. Wait,
so the same pigeons came back and like after being
mailed across the country. Yeah, because they have those homing
systems so they can find their way back from thousands
of miles away or whatever. But you know, thankfully the
scientists were eventually able to get the array cleaned out,
(25:50):
and after a year or so of experiments, they concluded
that the hiss they heard was indeed cosmic radiation and
not defecating pigeons. The birds confusing contra ribution to history, though,
hasn't been forgotten. And if you go to the Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum today you can see the actual
metal trap that Wilson and Penzi has used to trap
the squatter pigeons some fifty five years ago. That is
(26:11):
quite the honor, and I feel like a well deserved one.
So what do you say we end on that note
and get right into the fact off. So here's a
quick one. Because birds such as pigeons have a much
higher threshold for detecting movement, they would likely see a
(26:33):
movie shown at today's industry rate as a series of
flashing slides like the frames we use. Twenty four frames
per second is fast enough to give the illusion of
fluid movement to our eyes, but pigeon vision has to
be able to see signs of fast moving prey, so
twenty four frames per second is just way too slow
for the birds to perceive. All right, Well, pigeon vision
maybe based on ultra quick movement, But do you know
(26:55):
what's even faster than a pigeon? Mango? A lot of things, Okay, yeah,
a lot of things are, But I was specifically talking
here about bees because apparently back in a pigeon fans
here and beekeeper had this friendly little contest in Germany.
They challenged each other's pet of choice to this grueling
three and a half mile race, and wouldn't you know it,
(27:18):
the b one by a full twenty five seconds. That
is impressive, But I mostly want to know how this
contest happened in the first place, Like how board must
these guys have been to like organize a race like that?
It's in a question strange but okay, Sin, Since we're
on the subject of pigeon losses, I have to tell
you that there are catfish in France that have learned
(27:38):
to lunge out of the water in an effort to
hunt pigeons. And while the catfish aren't the most adept
hunters on land as you might imagine, they do pretty
well for themselves in the water, and their success rate
of catching pigeons is an impressive twenty eight percent. That's
a lot higher than I would have guessed, to be
honest with you. Since we're talking pigeons, I couldn't leave
the episode without, of course talking about Nicolette Huslam, who
(28:00):
you might remember was totally obsessed with pigeons. I feel
like that fact always has to come up here with
and one female pigeon in particular, so Tesla one set
of her. I love that pigeon as a man loves
a woman, and she loved me as long as I
had her. There was a purpose to my life such romance.
You know, I was looking up scientists and pigeons this
(28:22):
week too, And one thing I didn't realize was Darwin
was also obsessed with pigeons. He belonged to a London
fancy pigeon club, and he owned a flock, and in fact,
mental Flass reports his nine book The Variation of Animals
and Plants under Domestication has two full chapters on pigeons. Meanwhile,
dogs and cats share a single chapter. That seems that
(28:45):
seems fair. So all right, well, here's what I really like.
This artist named Laurel roth Hope Crochet's suits for urban Pigeons. Well,
I already like where this is going. Tell me more. Well,
she basically creates these disguises that pige can wear to
look like extinct birds. It's basically, you know, causeplay for pigeons,
I guess, But I guess it's also to raise awareness
(29:08):
for what our parks could have looked like if we
were a little more careful with nature. I like the idea,
and I do hope I get to see some of
these extinct not extinct birds in the city. And I
like the fact so I'm gonna give it to you
this week. Well, thank you so much, and it definitely
wasn't easy, but I kind of like that fact. But
that does it for today's episode of part Time Genius
from Gay Tristan, Mango, Lowell, and me. Thanks so much
(29:31):
for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of I
Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
(29:53):
listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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