On Saturday 14 July, the Cumbrian Region of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association will be commemorating the centenary of World War 1 with an open race from Ypres in Belgium.
Pigeon fanciers within the Cumbrian region want to recognise the sacrifice that the armed forces took in the First World War and the bravery of the homing pigeons involved.
Carrier pigeons played a vital part in World War One acting as military messengers with their homing ability and speed. Over 100,000 pigeons were used in the war with a success rate of 95% in delivering their messages.
Pigeons from the Royal Loft were also used as carrier pigeons in both World Wars. 32 pigeons were presented with the Dickin Medal including Royal Blue from the Sandringham Estate who was recognised for gallantry in its role of reporting a lost aircraft in 1940.
The pigeons involved in the race will fly from Ypres back to their individual lofts located in Cumbria and the surrounding areas. The journey by car is 444.5 miles and would take over 8 and a half hours – but these incredible birds can travel at speeds of 70 mph and are estimated to complete the race within 5-6 hours.
Leslie Blacklock, Secretary of the Cumbria Region for the Royal Pigeon Racing Association comments: “The Ypres open race is a great opportunity for pigeon fanciers within the Cumbrian region to commemorate 100 years since the end of WWI. Pigeons played such vital role in both World Wars and it seems only natural to celebrate their bravery with this race.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
It may not seem like one of life’s great mysteries, but a quick internet search reveals that people from across the world – London to Hong Kong, Cape Town to Buenos Aires – are asking this same question: for all the pigeons out there in our cities, where are all the dead ones? Alas they’re not pondering the presence of pigeon heaven, but rather, where are all the bodies?
Pigeons are as ubiquitous in the world’s cities as bad traffic, buskers, and late-night takeaways. London alone is estimated to contain more than a million pigeons, inhabiting the many parks and gardens that crisscross its 1,000 square miles. Given these vast numbers – and the fact that an urban pigeon seldom lives for more than three or four years – it’s a wonder why they are not strewn across city streets.
There are several possible reasons for this. First, pigeons are just one part of a wide array of creatures to have adopted our cities as their home. Foxes, rats, gulls, crows and ravens all do a wonderful job of cleaning up any carrion they come across, including deceased pigeons. These species perform inestimable services to the urban ecosystem, reducing human exposure to rotting matter and helping cut the transmission of infectious diseases.
Alongside these native janitors, domestic cats are equally happy to take care of a dead or injured pigeon. It is estimated that there are half a million cats living in London alone – roughly two pigeons per cat – and if you’re “lucky” they might bring one home as a present. Whether a resident moggy or some other carnivore, this network of surreptitious street cleaners will usually whisk away any pigeon corpses long before they’re seen by human eyes.
High-rise hideaways
Most pigeons, however, don’t simply drop dead on the ground. To understand where pigeons themselves are likely to go when feeling vulnerable or unwell, we need to delve into their origins. The pigeons we see in cities are domestic pigeons who have undergone some serious “rewilding”. They were originally bred as homing pigeons, trained birds who relayed important messages over large distances long before telephones. These pigeons even won prestigious medals in both world wars.
Going back further, the original homing pigeons were bred centuries ago from wild rock doves, a species which inhabits sea cliffs and coastal caves. Cities, with their high-rise buildings and elevated ledges, provide ideal nest sites for feral pigeons, and create an environment reminiscent of their ancestral homes. This background means that, when sick or injured, pigeons instinctively retreat to dark, remote places – ventilation systems, attics, building ledges – hoping to remain out of reach and unnoticed by predators. The predators don’t see them, but neither do we: often when pigeons expire, they are in hiding.
Gone before their time
But what actually causes a pigeon to die? As they get older, pigeons become more susceptible to disease, and often become slower to react to oncoming predators. It is well-established that when a predator attacks a flock of birds, slower individuals can become isolated from the group, making them easy prey. Dying of old age is not a luxury afforded to most pigeons: as soon as they shows signs of slowness or sickness, many are snapped up by peregrine falcons, sparrowhawks, or other predators.
One slightly macabre alternative that occurs in big cities, involves the netting that often hangs around buildings. Birds can easily fly into it and become entangled: not just old or sick pigeons, but any bird unfortunate enough not to notice it. Netting is usually high above the ground, so after some fruitless struggling dead pigeons usually hang there, away from the scavengers below.
Whether snatched midair by birds of prey, entangled by man made obstacles or alone in a remote corner of a skyscraper’s roof garden, there are many ways that pigeons pass on from this world. But they all take place within an internal urban ecosystem, that, for the most part, is hidden from our sight.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
After a pigeon, the certified emotional support animal for a Texas woman with autism, flew away, the two were reunited, thanks to a good Samaritan.
Ash Holbrook, the pigeon’s owner, broke down when her best friend and support animal Geraldine was returned to her Monday night.
Geraldine, who wears a pink diaper, got loose while Holbrook and her mother were hooking up a trailer at a horse derby in Oklahoma City.
The family says the pigeon normally comes right back when they let her out. However, they think the 4-hour car ride from her home in Sherman, TX, confused her, according to KFOR.
Instead of returning, Geraldine flew away.
“It was just so weird,” Holbrook told KFOR. “She got up really high and flew around and then took off. It was so weird.”
Holbrook, whom KFOR reports was diagnosed with autism later in life, and her family were worried sick about Geraldine because she wouldn’t know her surroundings in Oklahoma City.
But good Samaritan Delores Chavez spotted the pigeon – thanks to her pink diaper – and returned her to the family.
Holbrook and Geraldine normally spend every waking moment together, according to KFOR. The woman raised the bird, who was badly injured when she received her last year from a veterinarian in Oklahoma City.
Holbrook told KFOR the therapy animal brings her peace and makes her “feel OK and not alone.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Delhi woke to some good news last week. The city’s stately, two-storeyed Town Hall of 1863 vintage was dying a slow death, due to callous use by municipal officials from Independence up to 2009. Its museum and library too must be in their last throes, if rodents, seepage, white ants and pigeons have left any book or artifact intact at all. Still, and after nine more years of dithering, it’s final — the august building will soon be leased out to bidders for a heritage hotel.
One dismaying thought persists. What if the government “does an Air India” on the Town Hall by retaining a stranglehold through the hobby interior designer-wife of an official or someone else it wants to “favour” with a paid consultancy? Instead of leaving it to professional architects endowed with sense and sensibility — two qualities that no demolition-happy Indian government at any level — national, state or local — has ever displayed about heritage? Don’t buy my cynicism. Drop in on any government office housed in an old building anywhere in the country.
Like the stately Jaisalmer House in New Delhi, where officials of a ministry huddle in tacky Formica cubicles, inside what used to be expansive living quarters. Encircling them like the grim chorus of a Greek tragedy are steel almirahs; above them, a bewildering jungle of electric wires on which colonies of pigeons roost, frequently raining droppings and feathers down upon classified documents. Pan-chewers have left trademark splatter along the wide corridors that encircle an inner courtyard. (So great is the resemblance to a Dickensian warehouse that the ministry recently invited tenders from pest control companies to decimate the ancient building’s other unwelcome residents: swarms of rats.)
Or check out the debate and the mystical secrecy surrounding the design of an undoubtedly-needed war memorial at India Gate. The question on whether the memorial will mar the grand vistas and perfect symmetry of the India Gate hexagon and Rajpath remains unanswered. Or visit the National Museum, which houses some of India’s greatest and most awe-inspiring antiquities but also the surliest and most ignorant front office staff, who make it obvious just how much they hate being bothered by visitors.
“The National Museum is a treasure house of wondrous pieces. Why, then, do I feel such reluctance and depression when I go there?” asks Dastkar chairperson Laila Tyabji. The country’s top crafts activist also holds government ministries with “no eye for its contents, potential or the most basic aesthetics” responsible for its sorry state. “You pass a marvellous, medieval Vishnu used as a dumping ground for backpacks! On your right is a that stunning, towering rath, obscured in a dusty, plexiglass, kennel-like structure,” Ms Tyabji fumes. She also points to an astounding omission on the museum’s website — that there’s no mention of the American architect who was awarded the Padma Bhushan for designing the magnificent building.
To the rest of the country, Delhi is spoilt, Delhi is privileged. And there is some truth to that grumble. Delhi, at least, has plenty of heritage warriors who put frequent and welcome spokes into government wheels the minute they sense impending doom for old monuments. But whether in the capital or elsewhere in India, and depending on the nationality and/or religion of the long-gone patron-builder of a given monument, the chief reasons for neglect are either populist politics or profits.
Earlier this year, dismayed Kolkatans watched the Kenilworth Hotel — or the Purdy Mansion — being brought down. One of Kolkata’s oldest establishments of the British colonial era, the Kenilworth’s spacious suites were legendary and it remained the favourite watering hole of intellectuals and writers for generations. In 2009, the hotel was reportedly listed in the Grade IIA category on the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s list of heritage buildings. But earlier this year, it was stealthily scaled down to Grade III, that is, the category of old buildings that are allowed to fall. A 35-storey residential behemoth will now arise on the shards of invaluable history.
Reports suggest that there were 823 heritage structures still standing in Bengaluru in 1985. Since then, 469 of them, including the Murphy Town Library (for an “Indira Canteen”) and more recently, Lalbagh’s Krumbiegel Hall have been turned into rubble and venues for restaurants, malls and high-end apartments. The Moore Market was charred in a fire and many other Chennai landmarks were demolished. Still, the heritage-rich southern city scores some points for recently announcing its willingness to restore some of the most remarkable British-era college buildings.
But the more things change, the more they remain the same. Days after the Delhi Town Hall announcement came another, which brought all hopes of reviving both aesthetics and Delhi’s poisonous air crashing to earth again. All illegal street-side stalls, additional floors and makeshift parking lots at some busy Delhi markets (where every inch of pavement space is occupied by hawkers and vehicles) are going to be “regularised”. The municipality is obviously unconcerned by small piffles like air pollution, fire escapes and the space to walk for the city’s residents. Remember: both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are up in the next two years. What better time for a few sops?
If there are two things that are definitely NOT on the curriculum of either politicians’ nurseries or the celebrated IAS training institute in Mussoorie, they are city planning and the art of conserving ancient architecture, whether built by the “good guys” or “bad eggs”.
What one architect-writer famously described as Gujarati-Gothic and Punjabi Baroque dominate our city landscapes today. Curlicews and turrets, heat-producing construction material and reflector glass highly unsuited to tropical climates are what we will leave behind. For future generations to gasp at and wonder — is this the same nation and the same people that built Ajanta? Ellora? The Taj Mahal? Or even the iconic Hall of Nations at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, which even though of 1970s’ vintage and approved by a former PM-patron herself, was not spared the bulldozers’ either?
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Five years ago. a crow fell into the compound of B K Ajay Kumar Jain’s house. It lay there injured, helpless and terrified. Ajay who saw it was in a flap. For he didn’t know what to do. He wandered from pillar to post of a pet hospital and a veterinary hospital to get the injured crow treated. He realised that there were no good facilities to treat injured birds, and this gave him the idea to start a bird hospital.
His Pragathi Bird Charitable Hospital and Research Centre at Vidyaranyapuram has rescued and treated more than 1,250 birds. So far, he has rescued hundreds of birds by climbing buildings and trees, and crawling through drainage.
The 36-year-old runs this unique hospital that has an ICU and ambulance only for birds. The centre is a wing of NGO Pragathi Prathistan founded by Ajay. He did not know how to treat his winged rescues and he took lessons in first aid from veterinary specialist Dr Madan at Leela Veterinary Hospital. He says, “By keenly observing him for several months, I understood the behaviour of birds and learnt how to treat them.”
They have rescued several species including humming bird, wood peckers, pigeons, eagle, house swift, common mynah, owl, crow, bat, love birds, barbet, green tailed barker bird, brahminy kite, sparrows and parrots. A month ago, Ajay had treated more than 64 pelicans from Brindavan Gardens, after a huge tree was uprooted in heavy rains. The centre has also rescued and treated tortoises, mongooses, cats and dogs.
Once a bird is brought to the centre, they investigate the nature of the injury or illness. If the wounds are minor, they are treated at the centre. If they require a surgery, they are taken to Leela Veterinary Hospital; till date, 13 major surgeries have been done. After the birds recover, they are set free.
All expenses are borne by him and, for surgeries, he gets help from family members. He is the son of B A Kailash Chand Jain, veteran politician, Gandhian and president of Jain Sangha in Mysuru, and K Pista Kumari Bohra, social worker and national vice president of All India Jain Conference. He has three elder brothers and a younger sister who was ordained a Jain Sadhvi four years ago.He says, “People ask me why I waste my time and money on birds. I try to make them understand why we must save birds and the satisfaction we get from it, but they rarely get it”.
The centre, meanwhile, has made a mark. He says, “Initially, I got only one or two calls a month. Today, we receive two to three calls every day on an average. Most people call in to report about eagles in summer and pigeons in monsoon. Our 40 volunteers respond immediately.”
Ajay adds, “Most birds are injured from electrocution and accidents rise around Deepavali, when rockets hit them, and summer, when eagles fall to the ground from dehydration.”
People vouch for Ajay’s dedication. A resident of KRS Road, Savithri Mahendra, says, “We gave a call to him at 4.30 am one day, when we spotted injured birds caught in an uprooted tree. He rushed to the spot, climbed the tree and rescued them.”
Dr Srisha Bhat, adventure sports coordinator, says, “Many people still believe that touching an owl or a crow brings bad luck. If they do come into contact with these birds, they have a bath or do special pujas. But Ajay helps all birds without discrimination or hesitation.” Impressed by his effort, Srisha volunteers with the centre.Ventriloquist and magician Suma Rajkumar too became a volunteer with Pragathi Prathistan. “When we set the recovered birds free, it gives us great joy,” she says.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
FALLING roof tiles in SK Seri Kepong in Kuala Lumpur are putting pupils and staff at risk.
The school’s roof is in a such a bad state that the top floor, which has 10 classrooms, has not been used for the past two years because of leakage problem.
A check by StarMetro found the ceiling at the top floor had water marks and gaping holes where pigeons could be seen taking shelter.
The floor was dirty and filled with dust as well as bird droppings.
The library that was there has been relocated to a lower floor.
Parts of the school’s ground floor were also cordoned off to avoid accidents involving falling tiles, especially when it was windy or raining.
SK Seri Kepong headmaster Rosman Matnoor said school prefects were stationed near the prohibited sites during recess to ensure no pupils crossed into the dangerous area.
“I was posted to this school in June last year, which is when I came to know about the problem. “I raised the matter verbally with Kuala Lumpur Education Department and formally lodged a complaint in May after a thunderstorm.
“There are 214 pupils in this school that comprises preschool, primary and special education classes.
“We have enough classrooms despite the top floor being cordoned off, but this problem is a hazard and waste of space.
“The extra classrooms can be used by uniformed clubs for co-curricular activities,” he said during a meeting with Education officers and Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng to address the issue.
The department’s civil engineer Wan Norzaimi Mat said the Kuala Lumpur Education Department received a complaint on May 25 and had applied for an allocation to carry out repair works.
“We have been doing periodic maintenance on the roof over the years but because the building is in an area prone to crosswinds, the roof tiles are susceptible to being ripped off by strong winds.
“We have to find a better solution,” he said.
Lim said he would send a contractor to assess what immediate repair works could be done to avoid an unfortunate incident.
“I will apply for the RM20,000 emergency allocation granted to MPs to fund these repairs while waiting for the Education Ministry to act upon the complaint,” he said.
Parent-Teacher Association chairman Tan Chong Meng said he hoped the repair works would be carried out as soon as possible and the problem would be settled for good.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
It may sound like the product of an over-imaginative mind, but Operation Columba, a clandestine British bid to gain intelligence from occupied areas, was very real.
Between 1941 and 1944, around 16,000 avian agents, hidden in canisters with little parachutes attached, fell to the ground in rural France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The plucky pigeons sparked hundreds of tiny acts of resistance: villagers sending back messages, tied to the legs of the birds.
One group of villagers, led by a local priest, provided intelligence so valuable it was shown to Winston Churchill — but their brave defiance ultimately led them to a gruesome death.
Gordon Corera, an author and the BBC’s security correspondent, has pieced together details of that group, known by the codename Leopold Vindictive.
“I never thought I’d be writing about pigeons,” he laughs.
He began his research a few years ago after coming across a news story about the discovery of a dead pigeon’s leg in a chimney in Surrey, in South East England.
“I kid you not,” he says.
“The dead pigeon’s leg had a message attached to it which appeared to come from World War II. I found it bizarre and fascinating.”
The message was a series of random letters — a code not even the country’s best minds could crack.
So, Corera began a quest to unravel the mysterious message himself.
It took him to the National Archives, where he found many files on the little-known Secret Pigeon Service.
They were mostly boring — like where to store bird feed — but one, which had only just been declassified, stood out.
“It was called Columba. It was a War Office file from a [section] of military intelligence I’d never heard of — MI14(d). I mean we’ve all heard of MI5, but MI14(d)?” he says.
“Even more bizarrely, it had a picture of a pigeon, and then a cartoon of Hitler lying on his back, as if the pigeon had just done its business on Hitler, causing him to fall over.
“I’d never seen a wartime file with such an almost absurdly comic cover to it.”
Message 37
Inside the file was a rich trove of messages sent from occupied Europe via homing pigeon.
“They were from ordinary people, who’d picked up a pigeon in a field [and responded to] a questionnaire: ‘What do you see in your local area? Are there any Nazi troop movements? What’s morale like?'” Corera says.
Around 1,000 messages came back, but one was different.
Message 37 looked like a work of art, with detailed, colourful maps and writing too small to read with the naked eye.
It had been rolled up tightly into the size of a postage stamp so it could fit back into the cannister — and it produced 12 pages of raw intelligence.
“You can see in the files the British admiralty saying, ‘We weren’t sure about these pigeons, but this is real intelligence’,” Corera says.
“They showed it to Churchill, [I think because] it embodied the spirit of resistance… the idea that there were people out there in occupied Europe who wanted to resist, who wanted to work with Britain, who were willing to take huge risks.”
The Leopold Vindictive
Corera began to wonder about the people behind the message.
“The file had this codename, Leopold Vindictive, but it didn’t have their real names. I became slightly obsessed with trying to find out who they were,” he says.
“I knew they were Belgian villagers, so I started searching Belgian historical records and archives.”
The trail eventually led to Jozef Raskin, a Catholic priest who lived near the city of Bruges and was the leader of the resistance group.
That then led him to Raskin’s niece, Brigitte, and together they began to piece together his life story.
“He was a dedicated patriot. He wasn’t a normal priest, I think it’s worth saying,” Corera says.
“In the First World War, because he was quite an artist, he’d been involved in drawing maps of German positions in the trenches. So he already had a bit of a feel for military intelligence.
“He’d gone to China in between the wars as a missionary, and he’d learnt calligraphy, and how to write, that gave him the ability to write those tiny letters.
“And he also had a real network of friends across the country, because he went as a travelling preacher raising funds for the missionary organisation he worked for.”
The Leopold Vindictive was named for two of Raskin’s contacts: Belgium’s King Leopold, for whom Raskin had served as a chaplain, and a British admiral named Roger Keyes, whose ship was the Vindictive.
“He actually uses the admiral as a reference in the pigeon [message], and says ‘if you want to know who I am, contact the admiral. I was with him in 1940’.
“That’s one of the reasons they took the information so seriously.”
The group provided intelligence about troop movements, the results of bombing raids and specific information about a particular chateau the Germans were using as a base for their marine forces.
The two sides desperately tried to stay in touch and keep the information flowing.
“They tried to drop more pigeons, but the pigeons are hard to drop in a precise location, and they kept missing,” Corera says.
‘A gruesome, awful end’
Eventually Britain sent two MI6 agents to Belgium. Their mission included making contact with the Leopold Vindictive.
But by this stage Nazis had infiltrated parts of the resistance network, and they were closing in fast.
“I’m afraid that was the reality of wartime — the risks for these resistance groups, most would not survive,” Corera says.
“Surviving even for a year or two would be the exception, rather than the rule.”
Raskin was arrested and taken to Germany, where he was beheaded at a prison site. Two other members of his group were also killed.
“I’m afraid it was only discovered by their families after the war that they were executed there. It’s a gruesome, awful end,” Corera says.
“You want a happy ending to these stories, and you want to be able to say that it all worked. In this case the intelligence operation succeeded for a while, but it had its limits.”
But he thinks Raskin and others like him earned themselves everlasting respect.
“They do embody a spirit of taking those risks… for what they believed — their patriotism for their country, their desire to resist tyranny, in Raskin’s case his faith in God,” Corera says.
“That was a risk they understood and they paid a terrible price for it.”
And for the hundreds of other ordinary villagers who wrote a message on rice paper and sent it via pigeon, there was a powerful symbolism at play.
“They would watch them fly away, hopefully back to Britain,” Corera says.
“For them it was a symbol of hope and liberation. To liberate that pigeon was also emotionally very powerful for them, this idea of flying away and the hope that eventually their country could be free.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A mall in California hired Remmy — a Harris’ hawk — two years ago to hunt down uninvited pigeons.
The renovation of the Broadway Plaza mall in Walnut Creek, Calif., attracted dozens of pigeons.
“We had a major pigeon problem and were unsure of the best way to get it under control,” said Shelly Dress, senior manager of property management at the mall.
So Dress turned to Hawk Pros, a company that uses falcons to get rid of pest birds.
The practice helps avoid using chemicals and only scares away the targets, letting them live.
“A scared pigeon is an educated pigeon,” said Remmy’s handler, Bridget Maguire-Colton. “That pigeon will return to its flock and let the other birds know there’s a hawk here who means business. Pigeons are smart birds — they will remember where the hawk is and will seek out another venue for shelter, water and food.”
Separately, a flight attendant for a Chinese airline pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle almost two dozen spotted and box turtles from Los Angeles to China.
Hauqian Qu entered his guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy yesterday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Does a show that consists of LED-lit flocks of pigeons flying through the sky over a dilapidated former golf course in Thamesmead technically count as theatre? Dunno, don’t care, but I’m very happy I saw US artist Duke Riley’s beyond-sublime ‘Fly By Night’ (co-produced by LIFT, GDIF and 14-18 NOW).
At a signal from Riley and his assistants, the approximately 1,500 pigeons surge out of their illuminated coop, and wheel about the skies in tight, agile formations. As night descends, the birds cease to be discernible, with only the clear LEDs they wear around their legs visible. They look like clouds of shooting stars, like swarming constellations, like some sort of strange and wondrous celestial portent. It is really, really fucking cool.
‘Fly By Night’ is also notionally a commemoration of the messenger pigeons that were key to the British war effort a century ago. This doesn’t necessarily come across particularly obviously, but it’s not an unwelcome idea – it’s perhaps more accurate to call this a suggested train of thought rather than an actual message.
For me, the greater depth to the show was in how it functions as a commune with nature and the stark, hard landscape of Thamesmead. Not the hippest district in London by a long shot, on a perfectly clear solstice night it felt genuinely magical: a perfect, fading primrose-and-pale-cornflower sky chased with the crisp silhouettes of flying birds, the only noise the beat of wings and the odd, mournful whistle from Ellis and his team. In an unfamiliar, industrialised landscape that is, conversely, far closer to the countryside than most Londoners tend to get, it all just felt pretty transcendent, like the glowing birds were somehow a natural manifestation of the landscape, rather than outsiders here to perform a show.
You could argue over whether it ‘means anything’ that the pigeons come home. But you’re almost certainly never going to see a spectacle quite like it again. There are two performances left, and I would seriously urge you to try and make one.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — With his auburn feathers, white tail and three-foot wingspan, Remmy, a Harris’s hawk, makes for an impressive — and incongruous — sight at an upscale outdoor shopping mall anchored by Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom.
But he’s supposed to be there. He has a job to do.
Remmy was hired two years ago by Broadway Plaza after an extensive renovation that added 20 new stores, restaurants, revamped walkways and a two-story parking garage. Unfortunately, the transformed mall attracted not only new customers but also dozens of pigeons, which nested in garage rafters, scavenged for food and splattered the walkways with corrosive and bacteria-infused droppings.
“We had a major pigeon problem and were unsure of the best way to get it under control,” says Shelly Dress, senior manager of property management at the mall.
That’s where Remmy came in. After rejecting other options, such as fabric netting that would prevent pigeon nesting in certain spots, Dress turned to the Hawk Pros, a company based in Southern California that uses falconry to eradicate pest birds. At any given time, the firm has five to 10 birds of prey on assignment at sites such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the U.S. Bank Tower, also in L.A.
Remmy and his colleagues are part of a growing trend of using raptors to intimidate nuisance birds such as pigeons and seagulls, a practice that avoids the use of chemicals and — unlike in the ancient hunting sport of falconry — scares targets but lets them live. Some U.S. farmers deploy them to protect crops. Harris’s hawks patrol the grass courts at Wimbledon and Trafalgar Square in London. Falcons haze pigeons and crows at resorts in Dubai.
Since Remmy and his owner and handler, Bridget Maguire-Colton, have been coming to Broadway Plaza on a regular basis, the pigeon population has dropped from a few dozen to just a few, most of them in pockets of the garage. Dress initially hired the Hawk Pros for 12 days a month, Dress said, but Remmy was so effective that he now needs to stop by the mall only eight days a month, for three hours at a time, to ensure that the pigeons stay away.
With super-keen eyesight and the ability to rotate his head for 200-degree vision, Remmy surveys the shopping center for signs of pigeons. And when the pigeons at Broadway Plaza see Remmy, they take notice.
On a recent day, Maguire-Colton released the 2-year-old hawk from her gloved hand. He flew to the top of a cosmetics store, Lush, and scanned the outdoor eating area. Not seeing any pigeons, he swooped back down to his trainer’s hand.
The parking garage, however, was a different story. Up in the rafters was a pigeon that apparently hadn’t received the memo announcing Remmy’s hire as the mall’s official bird bouncer. Taking flight, Remmy darted toward the blacklisted bird. After several ensuing squawks, the smaller bird retreated, flying out of the open-air garage to parts unknown. Seemingly satisfied with a job well done, Remmy returned to Maguire-Colton and received a small piece of meat for his efforts.
“A scared pigeon is an educated pigeon,” Maguire-Colton says. “That pigeon will return to its flock and let the other birds know there’s a hawk here who means business. Pigeons are smart birds — they will remember where the hawk is and will seek out another venue for shelter, water and food.”
Maguire-Colton, a lifelong bird lover who is a licensed falconer, purchased Remmy from a California breeder when he was 5 months old. When she began training him at around 7 months old, she taught him to focus on pigeons. When he’s not working, he hangs out in a large enclosure at her home with her other Harris’s hawk, TK, or goes hunting with her for rabbits and pheasants.
“Harris’s hawks have a natural instinct to hunt,” said Maguire-Colton, who keeps Remmy on a long leash, letting him off only when he searches for prey. To call him back, she uses whistles and commands and rewards him for following directions.
Although Remmy appears fearless, he does shiver when a pet dog passes by. Maguire-Colton said she thinks he sees dogs as coyotes, one of the hawk’s predators in the wild. (He has an especially strong dislike for dogs in sweaters.)
Remmy’s an all-weather bird, in California at least. But when temperatures hit triple digits, Maguire-Colton brings a water bottle for him and keeps Remmy in shaded areas to prevent overheating. Sometimes, she said, she dips her finger into the mall fountains, and if it doesn’t taste too strongly of chlorine, she lets the hawk take a quick dip.
Since Remmy began patrolling the mall two years ago, most of its pigeons have departed, but the garage is a popular nesting spot for the stragglers that remain. (Nik Childers)
Unsurprisingly, Remmy has established a fan following at Broadway Plaza. On this day, a man with two small children stopped to inquire about the bird’s species and job description. Later, two tourists from Japan approached to ask whether they could pose for a photo with Remmy.
“Hiring Remmy was the best money we’ve spent,” Dress said. “He not only keeps the mall free of pigeons, he’s also become something of a local celebrity.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
SIR – Gemma Demaline (‘Please leave the poor pigeons out of this’, Craven Herald letters, June 14) is clearly right that the rubbish dumped near the railway bridge has indeed its origin in a human not avian source.
However she is in error on other matters.
My wife’s widescreen wipers are imperfectly good order but, had she been in a stream of traffic when her vision was suddenly obscured by pigeon droppings, she would have had much less than
one second in which to turn on the wipers, press the spray button and take evasive action – hardly feasible.
Fortunately there was, on this occasion, no other vehicle close by either ahead or behind.
Secondly, the natural habitat for the pigeons has not been destroyed – not one of the many trees by the side of the road has been removed so there is plenty of alternate roosting sites.
Of course, birds cannot avoid defecation, but Network Rail, who own the bridge, could make it secure from roosting birds without causing any harm to them.
On occasions, I have noticed a number of birds that appear to have been poisoned, so there must be those who are attempting to take the matter into their own hands – an action which I deplore.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Forest officials of Unai range in Tapi district detained eight tribal youths and stripped them for allegedly hunting birds like sparrows, mynahs and pigeons on Tuesday. The eight youths, who had to spend the whole night in detention in their underpants, were released on Wednesday after each of them paid a penalty of Rs 1,000.
Range Forest Officer Raghuveersingh Kosada justified the officials’ action on the tribals youths, saying, “the purpose of stripping them was to help them understand the importance of birds as it is also living beings and they should not be killed”.
Kosada said the sarpanch of Pati village, from where the eight youths hail, have been warned against any more such activities. “We have strictly told the village sarpanch and parents of those arrested that such activities of killing birds will not be entertained,” the Forest Officer said.
Defending the youths’ action , village sarpanch Dilkhush Gamit said: “There is a general tradition that the village youths go into the forest and kill birds and cook a meal of it. Our village youngsters had not killed peacock or any other animal. They were just sparrows, mynahs and pigeons. This kind of punishment of stripping them is new to us. We all illiterate and afraid of them (officials), so we cannot do anything against them.”
One of the arrested youth’s father called the forest officials action “harsh”. “My son helps me in the agricultural field, and during night he left home to meet his friends. It is quite routine that youths go to forest and hunt birds. It’s the tradition of our tribal community. To make our children naked and detain them for whole night in the forest office is a harsh punishment. Till now, no forest officer resorted to such an action,” the father said.
According to forest officials, they received a complaint about youths of Pati village in Dolvan taluka hunting birds and cooking their meat inside the forest. Acting on it, the forest officials carried out night patrolling on Tuesday when they detained eight youths. On frisking, officials claimed, they recovered a catapult and carcasses of pigeons, mynahs and sparrows from their bags. They were brought to Unai Range forest office and booked under Wildlife Protection Act before they were stripped to their underwear.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A pigeon problem in southwest Albuquerque has neighbors frustrated and worried.
Andrea Sutphin says the problem is the result of a vacant house.
“All I can hear when I’m sleeping is ‘boogedy-boo, boogedy-boo,’ which is really annoying,” said Sutphin.
But the noise isn’t the only problem.
“When it’s windy, all the fecal material and the debris fly out into my yard,” said Sutphin.
She says pigeons are nesting under the solar panels and she’s concerned about her health. Sutphin has been a registered nurse for more than 30 years. She says she knows pigeons can carry dangerous diseases. She says she’s already noticed the health impacts on her and her daughter.
“I do feel like both of us get up in the morning, we’re hoarse. She’s always telling me I’m trying to cough that thing that lives in my throat,” said Sutphin.
KOB contacted the Albuquerque Environmental Health Department. They said a crew will be out to investigate the problem. If they determine the pigeons are a nuisance, the owner of the vacant home will be responsible for fixing the issue.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A man in Caerphilly may be forced to have his homing pigeons culled in a row with Caerphilly Council over housing.
Matthew Graves jointly owned the pigeons with his late father which are housed in his council house in Castle View, Pwllypant.
Following the death of his father, Matthew and his wife applied to move from their council home in Churchill Park into his father’s but housing officials refused to allow the transfer. They stated that there were other applicants with a greater need.
Local Plaid Cymru councillor Colin Mann claims Welsh Homing Pigeon Union advised him that the pigeons couldn’t be moved which would force Matthew to have them culled.
These pigeons are homing pigeons and I have been advised clearly by the Welsh Homing Pigeon Union that they cannot be moved. This leaves the only alternative is for the council to have the pigeons culled which clearly would be appalling.
Members of the Graves family have lived at Castle View since it was built 50 or 60 years ago. They are the only tenants. What Matthew Graves and his wife are requesting is merely a transfer of tenancy from their Churchill Park home, which is more modern.
The council will not lose a property by allowing a transfer and it seems to me that the family are caught up in red tape. Surely, the council housing department should use some common sense and, therefore, avoid these homing pigeons having to be put down. The stance they are taking seems ridiculous to me.
Caerphilly Council say the pigeons will not be destroyed by them and they are happy to work with the family to reach a solution about their future. They also said there is no legal entitlement for Matthew and his wife to move into his father’s property.
Caerphilly operates a Common Housing Register for both new and housing transfer applicants to register their interest in being housed. The selection of a property is determined by our policy, with allocations being determined by location and type of housing required and also the priority need of the applicant. Applicants are placed into one of three bands depending on an assessment of their circumstances. Those assessed with the greatest need are afforded the highest priority.
In this specific case there is no legal entitlement of the family to the property and they already have a tenancy for a property that suits their needs. Due to the prioritisation of applicant need and the fact that the property in question is located within an area of high demand, it is unlikely that the family will be shortlisted for the property.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
In New York City you can make reports of unsanitary conditions caused by pigeons, including odor and excessive droppings on:
Window ledges
Sidewalks
Exteriors of commercial and residential properties
You cannot make complaints about pigeon droppings from:
Street lamps
Telephone or utility poles
Overpasses
Bridges
Transportation facilities
Public parks
It is not illegal to feed pigeons, but you may receive a violation for failing to clean up unsanitary conditions that result from this activity.
If you are a property owner, you are required to clean up unsanitary pigeon conditions on or originating from their property. You must provide the name and full address of the property owner for the City to take action.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Dear Answer Man: I noticed the other day that there are very few pigeons flying around downtown. I used to love watching their superbly synchronized acrobatics, as squadrons of perhaps 100 birds took flight. Sadly, lately I’ve seen just a handful of pigeons. Did some institution get tired of cleaning up after them, like the owners of the Old Opera House in Pine Island did a few weeks ago? — A Sad Lover of Pigeons
Well, Sad Lover, some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue. And while it sounds like you were happy as a lark when the bird population soared, right now, they’re scarcer than hen’s teeth.
My first call was to Mike Nigbur, who is in charge of the city’s crow-scaring efforts. He did not know of any pigeon decline downtown. His guess was that Mayo’s peregrine falcon program may have caused the pigeons to chicken out.
Replacing one bird population with another? That would be a little hawkward.
Tom Behrens, Mayo’s facilities chief in charge of the peregrine program, thinks that’s a likely explanation, though.
“The falcons will take some pigeons out, but not a lot — especially when there’s no young,” he said. “But the pigeons learn not to get into big groups, because they know they’re vulnerable that way.”
What’s likely happening, dear reader, is a general spreading-out — not a thinning of the flock. The smaller birds are nesting farther away from downtown, and when they do show up here, they’re in smaller groups. Kind of like how you spread spinach around your plate to make your parents think you’ve eaten it.
Jackie Fallon of the Midwest Peregrine Society backed that up.
“I would not say that the peregrines would cause a significant decline in the pigeon population, but they may alter the behavior of the pigeons to roost or move away from the immediate vicinity of the nesting buildings at Mayo,” she said.
Mike Tenney, the area wildlife supervisor for the DNR, said the pigeon population could potentially drop due to disease or predation from other animals.
Jaime Edwards, also of the DNR, was not aware of any efforts to control the pigeon population (via poison or any other man-made means). It’s not an uncommon action, she said, but pigeon control usually occurs around grain loading areas and elevators — neither of which you’re likely to find walking around downtown.
West Nile virus has disappeared from headlines for a bit, Edwards said, but that doesn’t mean the animal population can sleep easy. Pigeons are still susceptible to the fowl disease, which could have an effect on the population.
Finally, she mentioned that when we have “goofy springs like this” (read: unending slogs of cold, wet weather), it’s hard for birds to incubate their nests warmly enough to hatch eggs. So over a short period of time, you’ll start seeing fewer birds downtown.
Behrens, though, reassured me that pigeons breed year-round, and the population probably hasn’t decreased.
In the end, the answer may be for the birds. Pigeons aren’t native to Minnesota, so Edwards said the DNR isn’t tracking any fluctuations in the population.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
The traditional mass release of balloons was missing for the first time ever at the inauguration of the recent 14th edition of the Puttinu Cares Football Marathon at the Marsa Sports Grounds.
Following an appeal by several students from Eco-Schools in Malta the Puttinu Cares Animation Team heeded the call to stop balloon releases due to the threat they cause to wildlife. It is also a misconception that biodegradable balloons are a viable alternative as besides the harm done by strings attached to such balloons they may take several years to completely disintegrate.
Instead, the team contacted the Malta Federation of Racing Pigeon Clubs and hundreds of pigeons were released during the launch ceremony, creating a marvellous spectacle for the hundreds of children from several schools and guests present for the launch ceremony. Two soap bubble machines were also rented to add to the magical atmosphere.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Most of us see pigeons pretty much every day, pecking around for food, or perching on buildings.
Or just going about their pigeon-y business.
You might not think of them as being the smartest creatures around -but it turns out they’re a lot more intelligent than we realised.
Researchers in Canada set up an experiment to find out more about how pigeons make decisions.
They found that pigeons, like humans, use maths and something called probability to work out how they’re most likely to get the result they want
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
These pigeons are dropped off in a location and have to make their way back to their home in Amarillo. Each pigeon has to make it back to their loft and once they cross the antenna, their time is recorded on a clock. The flying speed is broke down into yards per minute to determine the winner.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Breeding high nutritional varieties of chickpea and pigeon pea just got easier. Genomic processes which used to take years are being completed in just a few months with the help of new technology.
This was found by scientists from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here, in collaboration with NRGene, Israel who helped create multiple assembly lines of pigeon pea and chickpea genomes. This means scientists can not only understand crop traits, they can also significantly speed up work on improved varieties.
With this technology from NRGene, ICRISAT has chickpea and pigeon pea genomes to a reference level quality that researchers can use. This would help maximise favorable nutritional properties of these high-protein legumes.
“The developing world has long faced the pressures of food security with limited farmland,” says Dr Rajeev K Varshney, Research Program director, Genetic Gains and director of Center of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology, ICRISAT.
“For effective use of genomics-assisted breeding, we need reference genomes of several varieties of a given crop. Therefore, new assemblies of chickpea and pigeon pea lines by NRGene and ICRISAT will allow our scientists and partners to better understand plant traits to breed more nutritional varieties.” ICRISAT in partnership with other institutions, has already decoded and documented genomes of pigeon pea and chickpea (Nature Biotechnology 2013, Nature Biotechnology 2012)
Traditional methods would have required years to complete each individual assembly. NRGene’s DeNovoMAGIC 3.0 delivered multiple assemblies in a matter of months. “While DeNovoMAGIC has been successfully deployed by the world’s leading seed companies and academic institutions, implementing this for organisations like ICRISAT enhances our mission of making an impact on the world food supply,” says Dr. Gil Ronen, CEO of NRGene.
“Chickpea, pigeon pea, and other protein-rich legumes will be even more critical crops in the future and we are glad that our technology can be used to improve the nutritional status of the world.”
Chickpea and pigeon pea have 15-22 grams of protein per 100 grams and are a critical food and nutrition source in India, Africa, and the Caribbean. India produces 64% of the world’s total chickpeas and 63% of the world’s pigeon pea. However, protein hunger, an important aspect of malnutrition continues to be a major concern in Asia.
The drylands, covering 55 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa inhabited by 2 billion people, 644 million of whom are poor, is most vulnerable to climate change with very little rainfall, degraded soils and poor social infrastructure. ICRISAT through scientific research aims to find solutions for the nutrition security of people in these regions.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
