by johnnymarin | Mar 16, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Enemy searchlights had caught its outline as the RAF Whitley reached Nieuport on the coast of Nazi-occupied Belgium, and the German batteries opened up. But unscathed, the pilots pressed on, heading inland as instructed.
Just minutes later, passing above the darkened fields of Flanders, the crucial moment had arrived. The flaps of the aircraft were lowered and, from a height of between 600 and 1,000ft, a British ‘agent’ parachuted gently to the ground.
This was July 1941, and an extraordinary new development in the intelligence war with the Wehrmacht was in full swing. So important was the information gleaned from this particular mission, it would end up on Churchill’s desk.
A member of a Royal Air Force aircrew holding a carrier pigeon taking part in Operation Columba beside a Lockheed Hudson of Coastal Command around 1942
An RAF pilot takes a carrier pigeon on board his Halifax bomber before a raid in World War Two – the pigeons were useful – among other things – to take home SOS messages if the plane’s radio was shot up (June 1943)
A photo of the Debaillie family in Belgium before they dispatched the pigeon – Marie, the elder sister, is holding a resistance newspaper (left), Margaret is holding the parachute (right) Arseen holds a pencil, Gabriel the British intelligence questionnaire, and Michel clutches the pigeon. In front of them is a chalkboard with the dates of the bird’s arrival and departure, its ring number and the phrase ‘Via Engeland’ to mark its destination. And at the top are three capital V’s – the symbol of Victory
Secret messages were packed into cylinders that were attached to pigeons’ legs
Yet the figure floating down through the Belgian night was no normal operative, vulnerable to capture, to torture or to worse. For this was Operation Columba, a largely forgotten yet essential weapon in the fight against Nazi Germany, and one that played an important role in turning the fortunes of the War.
And the spy it was despatching behind enemy lines? A pigeon.
I first stumbled across this remarkable tale by chance one morning, while covering a quirky news story for the BBC. The boney leg of a dead pigeon had been found in a chimney in Surrey and attached to it was a message which, after investigation, had stumped even the top code-breakers of GCHQ, unable to decipher a seemingly random series of letters. What might this strange relic mean? No one seemed entirely sure. Could pigeons have been used in the Second World War, perhaps? Again, information was scarce.
My interest piqued, I spent a morning in the National Archives in Kew, West London, pulling up any and every relevant file – and one of the bundles that landed on my desk immediately stood out. Marked with the words ‘Secret’ and ‘Columba’, it contained compelling details of an operation, including tiny pink slips of paper that transpired on closer inspection to be messages from ordinary people living in occupied Europe.
They had clearly been brought back to Britain by pigeon. Filled with the day-to-day realities of wartime, the slips offered an intriguing insight into the small frustrations and dark tragedies of life under occupation.
None of them, however, compared with the one labelled Message Number 37. More like a work of art than an official document, it contained tiny, beautiful inky writing, too small to read with the naked eye and densely packed into an unimaginably small space. And detailed, colourful maps. Who had written it? And what had happened to them? There was little to work with as the message was identified with no more than a code-name – Leopold Vindictive.
After three years of searching, I finally found my answer in rural Belgium. The story of this unlikely spying mission began in April 1941. There had been attempts to drop secret agents behind German lines since the summer of 1940, but they were perilous. Some agents died before they hit the ground. Others were captured all too quickly.
So slim were the intelligence pickings that the secret services were even instructed to see if a Yorkshire astrologer and water diviner known as ‘Smokey Joe’ could help. MI6 had agents abroad, but the human networks were a mess.
In 1940, it was even claimed that German troops in Norway were practising the bagpipes and training to swim ashore wearing green watertight suits. And so an unlikely new strategy was devised – of dropping homing pigeons into occupied Europe in the hope they would fall into the hands of sympathisers who would send them home with information useful to the Allies.
Each bird would be placed in a special box with a parachute attached, and a tiny green Bakelite cylinder – about the size of a pen top – was placed around one leg.On the outside of each container was an envelope with a questionnaire, written in Dutch or French, some rice paper for the return message, a pencil, and a bag of pigeon food.
The latest edition of a resistance newspaper printed in London was enclosed, or sometimes a copy of the Daily Mail, to prove the bird had come from England.
Details of the operation were kept secret from the pigeon fanciers who volunteered the birds. So who was behind this outlandish mission?
Today, everyone is familiar with MI5 and MI6, but few have heard of MI14, let alone its sub-section MI14(d). Its job was to understand the German occupation of Western Europe. Working out of a basement room in the War Office in Central London, it initially comprised just two officers: Brian Melland, a former theatrical actor, and ‘Sandy’ Sanderson, who had served with the Highland Division in the First World War. This was the unit in charge of the Secret Pigeon Service.
Operation Columba got under way on the night of April 8, 1941. A Whitley crossed into Belgium near Zeebrugge then headed for the French border, where the pigeons in their containers were pushed out. Two days later, in the bowels of the War Office, at 10.30am, MI14’s phone started ringing. The first bird had made its way home to its owner in Kent. Columba message number one was phoned in.
It had come from a village called Le Briel in northern France and contained real information. ‘Pigeon found Wednesday 9th at 8am,’ it began. ‘The German troop movements are always at night. There are 50 Germans in every Commune. There is a large munitions dump at Herzeele 200 metres from the railway station. Yesterday, a convoy of Horse Artillery passed towards Dunkirk… The Bosches do not mention an invasion of England. Their morale is not too good. The RAF… should come to bomb the brick works as the proprietor is a …’ The next word was marked as ‘illegible’.
The message ended with ‘I await your return, I am and remain a Frenchman.’ At 3pm, message number two arrived, this time from Flanders.
Operation Columba’s most deadly foe proved to be a natural one – it was the hawk. German hawks were flown along the coast from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to catch and kill Columba birds as they headed for Britain
‘There are only a few troops here and no petrol dumps,’ it read. ‘But yesterday some artillery arrived and the men say they are going to Yugoslavia where other troops and wagons are also moving.’
After three months, 221 birds had been flown into occupied territory, many from Newmarket racecourse – home to a top-secret RAF squadron whose job was to carry out ‘Special Duties’ for British intelligence – and released over Flanders, Normandy and Brittany. Forty-six had returned, 19 with messages, of which 17 contained information.
Often people were fearful at discovering a spy pigeon, and understandably so. Many decided it was better the pigeon died than they did. Some villagers even made the choice more palatable by roasting and eating the bird. Others went straight to the local police station or Nazi occupiers in return for a reward.
The people responsible for the remarkable Message 37 were braver than that, and fiercely anti-Nazi. The pigeon and its container had been retrieved in July 1941 from fields near Lichtervelde by an unnamed Belgian farmer. Concealing them in a sack of potatoes, he took them to the Debaillies, a patriotic family of two sisters and three brothers who ran a corner shop.
One of the brothers, Michel, was a pigeon fancier. The Debaillies summoned two family friends, Hector Joye, a former soldier with a love of military maps, and a Catholic priest, Father Joseph Raskin, who had worked as an intelligence gatherer sketching German military positions during the First World War to aid allied reconnaissance. Brothers Arseen and Gabriel drove along the coast and through the neighbourhoods around Bruges, taking notes.
Joye gathered intelligence on a chateau occupied by German troops. Raskin tapped church-goers for information.
After a few days, the priest set about transferring the maps and the wealth of information to the two tiny sheets of rice paper. He worked through the night of July 11 using a magnifying glass and a fine-tipped pen until all the space was filled.
The rice paper was folded and placed inside the cylinder attached to the pigeon’s foot. Then the group did something contrary to every rule of spycraft: they stood for a family portrait in a courtyard behind the shop. At first sight, it could be any other family picture, but look more closely and you can see that Marie, the elder sister, is holding a resistance newspaper, Margaret is holding the parachute. Arseen holds a pencil, Gabriel the British intelligence questionnaire, and Michel clutches the pigeon.
In front of them, is a chalkboard with the dates of the bird’s arrival and departure, its ring number and the phrase ‘Via Engeland’ to mark its destination. And at the top are three capital V’s – the symbol of Victory. Climbing up on to the roof, Michel then released the bird. At 8.15am the pigeon rose high into the sky, circled to get its bearings, then made for the Channel and home. By 3.30pm, it was back at its loft in Lattice Avenue, Ipswich, with the canister arriving in the War Office on July 13.
A British Army carrier pigeon, VC Pigeon, (pictured) was shot by a German sniper during the First World War and is now on display at the Royal Signals Museum in Blandford, Dorset
Homing pigeons played an important role in both world wars – their homing ability, speed and ability to get to high altitudes meant they were often used as military messengers
Between April 1941 and September 1944, a total of 16,554 pigeons would be dropped in an arc from Copenhagen in Denmark to Bordeaux in the South of France – only one in ten made it back alive
The pigeons that survived more than proved their worth, helping to pave the way for D-Day and victory
Melland pulled out the first sheet of paper, nine inches square, and the closer he looked, the more astonished he was. The transcript came to a remarkable 5,000 words and took up 12 pages. It was gold dust. It indicated hidden German emplacements, munitions depots and fuel dumps. It highlighted a telephone exchange and nearly a dozen factories playing a role in the German war effort.
There were precise battle damage assessments of recent British raids in Brussels. A map showed a château that was the central communications installation for German High Command in the whole sector. Message 37 rapidly made its way around Whitehall and was shown to Churchill himself. It represented more than just a collection of useful facts. It summed up a spirit of resistance, confirming to Britain’s leaders that some of those living under the tyranny of Nazi occupation were willing to risk their lives to help.
Mary, a carrier pigeon, was hit by shrapnel, wounded by pellets and attacked by German war hawks as she flew over the Pas De Calais
The message was signed with the codename ‘Leopold Vindictive’ and asked for a response on the Dutch and Belgian BBC radio news. On July 15, only three days after Michel had set the bird free, the Belgians heard this on their radio: ‘Leopold Vindictive 200, the key fits the lock and the bird is in the lion’s cage.’ Sadly, the Leopold Vindictive story does not have a happy ending.
The group of amateur spies gathered more intelligence but future pigeon drops failed to reach them. In growing frustration, they trusted a chain of resistance contacts but the Germans closed in. They arrested and tried Raskin, Joye and Arseen Debaillie. On October 18, 1943, in Dortmund, all three were guillotined.
But still Operation Columba pressed on. Between April 1941 and September 1944, a total of 16,554 pigeons would be dropped in an arc from Copenhagen in Denmark to Bordeaux in the South of France. Only one in ten made it back alive. Some were lost on planes shot down before they had a chance to be released. Some lay unfound in a field.
The Germans responded of course. Rewards were offered and punishments were draconian. An MI6 agent reported that a notice displayed in one Belgian town offered 625 francs to anyone who delivered a British pigeon. Rumours began to emerge that the Germans were planting false pigeons to trap people.
Marksmen were stationed on the coast of northern France while a Columba report from the Loire Valley said that pigeons fell into enemy hands after a German observation post spotted the RAF flight passing overhead.
But Operation Columba’s most deadly foe proved to be a natural one. It was the hawk. German hawks were flown along the coast from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to catch and kill Columba birds as they headed for Britain.
Yet the ones that survived more than proved their worth, helping to pave the way for D-Day and victory.
And for the French and the Belgians living under Nazi occupation, there was something else besides: the hope that these remarkable birds, released up into the freedom of the skies, would race back safely to their homes and help free their nation from tyranny.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Mar 15, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Literally. The stately Constanta Casino in Romania once hosted the family of Russian tsar Nicholas II, who became familiar with its large art deco rooms, lavish staircases and shell-shaped windows overlooking the Black Sea.
But now, this is what remains of the old casino – a crumbling, and rather spooky, abandoned manor.
Photojournalist Jakub Kyncl got special permission from Constanta City Hall to visit the old casino, which he said faced an uncertain future as the local community couldn’t afford to restore it to its former glory.
“There are hundreds of pigeons inside as well as family of cats eating deceased pigeons,” Mr Kyncl told news.com.au.
“Bird feathers and faeces are all over the building. A bandana over the mouth was a very good idea.”
The Art Nouveau building has had a fascinating history since it opened as a casino in 1910. Soon after the Russian royal family visited in 1914, it was converted to a military hospital with the outbreak of World War 1.
A devastating bomb attack at the hospital in 1916 left 10 people dead.
By 1917 it was operating as a casino again – until the outbreak of World War II, when it was again hit by a bomb.
Another blow came after the war, when Romania’s strong anti-gambling laws effectively ended its days as a casino.
It was given a new life as a restaurant, bar and meeting venue, but by 1990 it was abandoned and left to rot.
In January, the building was short-listed for a list of the seven most endangered buildings in Europe.
A submission to the Europa Nostra heritage foundation noted the main danger to the building came from the corrosion and rusting of metal.
“Sea storms and winds have shattered most of the windows facing the sea,” the submission read.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Mar 11, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Iranian security agencies are worried about the presence of pigeons at the Macca Masjid. Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani will visit the historic mosque, along with his delegation, and address a gathering of namazis on Friday.
The police have deployed sharpshooters and armed guards as part of the security arrangements for his visit. But, security personnel are worried about pigeon droppings.
Iranian security agents who visited the mosque to oversee the security arrangements noticed that there were bird droppings and twigs on the first row, where Dr Rouhani is likely to sit while he offers prayers. The agents pointed it out to the mosque authorities, who assured them that they would look into the issue.
The Macca Masjid, a symbol of Iranian architecture, is home to a thousand pigeons. The birds have been living in the mosque’s minarets and lintels for years. There are pigeonholes on the roof as well.
A 70-member group consisting of the Iranian delegation, local public representatives and officials will offer prayers at the mosque on Friday.
Officials have requested the minorities welfare department and the Macca Masjid authorities to arrange for a shamiana (tent) outside the mosque.
“Inside the mosque, we will tie a cloth to cover the first two rows.
“We have been told that the President of Iran will be addressing a small gathering,” said an official from the minorities welfare department.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Mar 10, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Toronto social media users are this week extolling hawks for appearing en masse and publicly eating less lovable urban wildlife: pigeons.
Reddit and Twitter users have posted pictures of hawks swooping down on busy Toronto streets like Gerrard St. E. and College St., to devour the less fortunate birds that comprise their meals.
As one Reddit user put it: “Seriously I love anything that will get rid of the damn rats-with-wings,” lovingly referring to the predators as “skycats.”
Mark Peck, who looks after the ornithology and bird collections at the Royal Ontario Museum, said he too has noticed more hawks enjoying the city this week — hunting, nesting and trying to attract mates.
“The last few days with the warmer weather I’m seeing more and more birds doing courtship displays,” he said. “I think this warm weather has got everybody’s hormones going a little bit so the hawks are starting to think of the breeding system.”
Peck said both Cooper’s hawks and red-tailed hawks, historically forest and rural birds, have been “moving in” downtown for about two decades.
They choose Toronto, he said, because the city has a strong ravine system and bird feeders — ideal for predator birds to swoop down on smaller, prey while they feed.
This week was a bit unusual, Peck said, because it’s still early for hawks to nest in the city. Ample food and warm weather seem to have encouraged them to do just that.
On his way to work this week, Peck noticed a red-tailed hawk had returned to a nest on an exterior air-conditioning unit near Bloor St. W. and Spadina Ave., which he has been observing for three years. He didn’t expect to see the nest occupied until mid- to late-March.
The fact that the hawks are adapting to city life, and are doing so in a way that is visible to humans is “all good news,” in Peck’s view.
“It allows people to see (nature) and engage with them,” Peck said.
In other words, the birds are saying, “Stop looking at your phone and look at the world around you.”
He added the hawks are nervous birds, and are unlikely to bother humans or their pets.
That doesn’t mean they’re shy about eating in front of humans though.
“Birds are getting more comfortable with people, so they’re eating them right in front of people these days,” Peck said.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Mar 9, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
They have been maligned as “rats of the sky”, a filthy menace blighting our cities. Could it be, though, that far from spreading illness from above pigeons may save us from it?
That is the contention of scientists who believe that feral pigeons could be a frontline weapon against a genuine airborne risk: pollution.
Stored in the feathers of each pigeon is the accumulated grime of the cities we share with them. As they peck at our discarded soggy chips and splash through the puddles of our gridlocked streets, they pick up a record of the pollution to which we are also exposed.
Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez, from the University of California, Davis, has conducted studies showing that the lead levels in pigeon feathers correspond to the lead levels in children living in the same area. They also correlate to the amount of traffic in the vicinity.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas, she said she thought that the birds were a perfect tool for sampling the polluted urban environment.
“Pigeons have existed for ages in close proximity to us, eating the same food, drinking and being exposed to the same water sources, soil, air, pollution,” she said. “They have a very small home range, spending their life within a few neighbourhood blocks. And, because they are alive, they process these chemicals in their bodies. This offers up the opportunity to not only find toxin hot spots in our environment, but to understand how these toxins affect biology.”
She is not the first to have the idea. In 2016 as part of a pollution awareness project, racing pigeons equipped with backpacks were released into the London skies to take readings across the capital. She has taken it further, though, conducting large-scale trials on pigeons in New York, looking to see how readings taken from them corresponded to the pollution affecting the humans who walked among them.
Dr Calisi-Rodríguez said that her research showed there was no need for pedigree pigeons. Instead, even the mangiest club-footed pigeon could inform us about our urban environment and its effect on us — simply by looking at the chemical signature accrued in its body.
“Birds, like us, are vertebrates. We share a lot of the same evolutionary history, and our bodies have many similarities in terms of tissue form and function. For example, like humans, pigeons lactate,” she said. She argued that this made them surprisingly good avian proxies for humans.
“What we learn in birds can have far-reaching implications,” she said.
Once, we relied on canaries in the mine. If she gets her way, this far more quotidian bird could be their modern equivalent.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by johnnymarin | Mar 6, 2018 | Pigeons in the News
Iran may suspect special lizards of spying, but the use of animals for intelligence purposes dates back well over 100 years and involves not just reptiles but cats, dogs, birds and even sea life.
Carrier pigeons were used in ancient times for relaying messages. But interest in the use of animals has changed with the development of microelectronics and miniaturization that allowed small listening devices to be put on birds and even small mammals.
More recently, technology has been catching up with dog-like robots for defense use as well as hummingbird-size drones tested by the Pentagon. The Air Force also has released video of “bugbots” or “birdbots” that could be used for surveillance and military applications, including potential swarm attacks.
Iran has a long history of suspecting animals for spying, particularly accusing the West of trying to gather information about its nuclear activities.
Back in 2008, two “spy pigeons” were suspected of being used to gather intelligence about Iran’s uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, reported Iran’s reformist paper Etemad Melli. It said one of the birds was captured not far from the heavily bunkered underground facility and had metal rings, strings and other suspicious features attached.
‘Spy’ squirrels busted
Iran’s media also reported the case of 14 “spy” squirrels that were busted in 2007. The account at the time by the daily Resalat claimed the rodents were released along its border by Western intelligence and fitted with espionage equipment, including navigation tracking, bugging devices and a camera.
As for lizards spying, the stories about the reptiles surfaced Tuesday when Hassan Firuzabadi, a senior military advisor to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the state-run Iranian Labour News Agency about how lizards and perhaps salamanders were used by Western countries to “find out where we had uranium mines and where we were involved in atomic activities.”
According to Firuzabadi, “lizard-like animal skins attract nuclear waves.” He claimed Iranian authorities stumbled on suspicious cases of outsiders with reptiles in their possession and concluded it was part of a pattern of espionage conducted by environmentalists.
“Probably the reason the Iranians are paranoid and jumpy is because people have used fake rocks outside Iranian nuclear facilities to monitor what they’re up to,” said James Lewis, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based international security think tank.
Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat with experience in high technology and intelligence, said the rocks reportedly would self-destruct when they were picked up. The rocks were found by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on patrol near the country’s underground nuclear enrichment facility in Fordow and reported first in 2012 by U.K.’s Sunday Times newspaper.
Similarly, Iran-backed militant groups also have accused Israel of using animals for espionage.
Dolphin with arrows
In 2015, Gaza Strip’s Hamas security officials reportedly captured a dolphin equipped with “video cameras” off the coast, according to the Palestinian paper al-Quds. The Iran-backed group claimed the dolphin was sent by Israel and also fitted with a weapon that could fire arrows at humans.
There also was a 2016 case of a “spy vulture” captured in the southern Lebanon town of Bint Jbeil. Local media in Lebanon called it a “spy” bird because it reportedly carried transmitter equipment, but Israel claimed it was from a nature reserve and asked for it back. Parts of southern Lebanon are controlled by Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group.
There have also been claims over the years from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Sudan of the Israelis using eagles, vultures or other birds for espionage. An Egyptian official in 2010 claimed sharks controlled by Israel’s Mossad were responsible for attacks on tourists in the Red Sea to hurt the local tourism economy.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the R&D arm of the Pentagon, has tested controlling sharks, and the U.S. Navy does training with dolphins and sea lions. There’s also been research over the decades with beluga whales.
The use of the dolphins by the U.S. military focuses primarily around locating underwater mines and helping with rescues at sea. The dolphins, which are trained at a base in San Diego, were used by the U.S. military during the first and second Gulf wars to help clear mines.
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.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
