One of the first birds people ever domesticated now lives unloved on our pavements. Nephila Wildlife makes the case that the city pigeon is a feral pet we are responsible for.
Why the city pigeon is our responsibility
Nephila Wildlife writes from Germany and argues that the city pigeon is not really a wild bird. It descends from the rock dove, which people domesticated thousands of years ago for meat, then as a carrier and even as a military messenger. When the birds were no longer useful, they were left on the streets, and racing and wedding pigeons that get lost keep adding to city flocks.
The story looks at how cities respond. It describes a planned cull of around 200 pigeons in Limburg, and an update says the cull did not go ahead after the authorities refused the exemption it needed. The author calls killing pointless, because strongly breeding flocks recover quickly, and says feeding bans do not shrink populations either.
As a lasting alternative, the author points to supervised lofts, the so-called Augsburg model, where eggs are swapped for dummy ones. Jena, for example, swapped more than 1,000 eggs in 2020. The piece ends with a personal opinion on pigeon breeding and a call to educate others and help injured birds.
_This story was written by Nephila Wildlife for Untold Wildlife, our partner in bringing overlooked conservation stories to more people._