S1E2: Interesting Pigeons

 In episode two, Claudia Hirtenfelder talks a little about pigeons fascinating histories and physiologies. The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast. Season 1 is focused on “Animals and The Urban.” 

 Featured: 

• Why Cities have so many pigeons by Insider Science
• 3 Odd Facts about Pigeons by SciShow
• National Geographic: Pigeon Genius by National Geographic
• The Global Pigeon by Colin Jerolmack
• The Animal Turn "Animal Highlights (Animals and The Urban)" Playlist on Youtube. 

Team Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Sound Credits: 

• Pigeons cooing and bird flapping sounds, Freesound.org 
• Bird pecking sounds, Freesound.org 
• Why cities have so many pigeons, Insider Science
• Pigeon Genius, National Geographic

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

• Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics sponsored the season of The Animal Turn Podcast where these highlights were originally aired. Originally Aired/Recorded: 15 March 2021

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

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The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:42 Pigeons’ Amazing Histories and Bodies
• 1:34 Urban Pigeons
• 2:07 Pigeon Age
• 2:30 Conceptual Capacities
• 4:08 Closing
• 4:40 Credits

Transcript

00:00 - Introduction 

• This first season animals and the urban and is extracted from Season 3 of The Animal Turn Podcast.  
• “In this second highlight I highlight pigeons, they are super fascinating. Enjoy!”

00:42 – Pigeons’ Amazing Histories and Bodies

• “Pigeons are absolutely amazing birds. I knew I really liked pigeons prior to getting things ready for this animal highlight but I had no idea how cool they were. I mean really, there are pigeons who are decorated war heroes, and have military stories, homing stories, and a variety of stories about how they have helped and served humans.”
•  “Persian kings used them, Julias Ceasar used them, and in World War 1 soldiers on the front used them to relay hundreds of thousands of messages.” (3 Odd Facts about Pigeons by SciShow)
• “But as an animal in and of themselves they are just amazing. They can see in ultraviolet light. They can hear ultrasound. They are one of only a few species that can produce something called crop milk which is where pre-digested food is regurgitated through the lining of their throat. It’s a really rich milk that is high in fat and protein.”

01:34 – Urban Pigeons

• “They live in cities in abundance, even though humans have actively tried to remove them from cities. And one of the reasons they really like cities is because there’s a whole host of food available but also our buildings tend to look a lot like cliff faces.”
•  “Because as Carlin says: ‘Cities are essentially tailor made for these birds’” (Why Cities have so many pigeons by Insider Science)
• “They’re amazing flyers. They are able to find their way home from almost anywhere.”
• “So pigeons are just awesome”

02:07 – Pigeon Age

• “They were domesticated by humans some 5,000 years ago and, what you might not know, pigeons can live for between 3 to 15 years. So when you see a pigeon on the street pecking away you might want to stop and think about how old this pigeon is and the world they’ve seen and the things they’ve done.”

02:30 – Conceptual Capacities

• “Pigeons are thought to have really high conceptual capacities. So, a lot of people have heard about the mirror test and elephants and chimpanzees passing what’s the mirror test. Pigeons have passed this test.”
• “Other studies have also been done to understand or unpack pigeons’ conceptual capacities. So, in one they were shown a variety of different paintings to try and see if they could distinguish between a Monet and a Picasso painting. And once they were able to identify the difference between Monet and Picasso paintings, they started to be able to differentiate between paintings based on style. So, when they were shown a painting they had never ever seen before, if that style resembled Picasso they were able to show that that’s a Picasso painting.”
• “And with the same kind of conceptual reasoning they’ve realised that pigeons are also able to identify malignant versus benign cancer when looking at a scan. So they will have a scan of both malignant and benign tumours and a single pigeon is able to do this, once trained, to identify and differentiate between the two, is able to identify the difference 85% of the time. But when you put them in a group of pigeons they are able to do so 99% of the time.”
• “They are remarkable vision machines. They are remarkable memory machines. They do this, you know, all with brain that’s really not much bigger than a thumb.” (National Geographic: Pigeon Genius by National Geographic)
•  “Which is just an amazing fact. They can see colours and they tend to mate for life which means they pick someone who they like, they like and they love and they stick with them which is rather amazing.”

04:08 – Closing 

• “All I really want to do and say is the next time you see a pigeon in your sitting stop, look at them, consider how old they are. Consider what their relationships are. How many young they have given milk to. They really are amazing, amazing birds who we’ve got thousands and thousands of years worth of history with. So, I hope that you stop and watch pigeons.”

04:40 - Credits

• “A huge thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics for sponsoring The Animal Turn Podcast, where these clips were taken from. To Christiaan Mentz for editing this episode. Thank you also goes to Rebecca Shen for designing the Animal Highlight logo and episode art work.”