There are over 400 species of pigeons in the world, and each species has its own curious trait. For homing pigeons, it’s always knowing the way back from which they came. For a USD professor who raises them, it’s figuring out which way to go.
Kandy Noles Stevens is an adjunct professor and STEM Specialist teaching physical science for elementary in the School of Education at USD. The recipient of the 2019 Graduate Excellence in Teaching at USD, she’s also studying to gain her doctoral degree.
Stevens grew up as the only girl in a crowd of cousins who led her to muddy riverbanks to catch frogs and tadpoles. In high school, despite an upbringing in nature, Stevens had no intention of entering the field of science. Until someone told her she couldn’t.
“My first day of my high school physics class, the teacher said something about how only the boys were going to succeed in the class and none of us girls were going to be able to finish the class,” Stevens said. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but as I got older and was able to look back, it was in that moment that a scientist was born. Because I was going to prove him wrong.”
And prove him wrong she did. She went to work as a chemist for the United States Agriculture Department, and later, became a teacher herself. Now, when Stevens isn’t teaching at USD, she’s teaching at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minnesota, where she and her family live.
Kandy Noles Stevens holds a homing pigeon outside her home in Marshall, Minnesota. Stevens commutes to Vermillion once a week to teach physical science for elementary in the School of Education. Lauren Soulek | The Volante
It’s also the place where, eleven years ago, tragedy struck them. On Feb. 19, 2008 at 3:25 p.m., on a highway north of Cottonwood, Minnesota, roughly 15 miles north of Marshall, a minivan blew through a stop sign and broadsided a school bus returning children home after a school day. The bus flipped on its side, and as a result, injured fourteen people and killed four.
Three of Steven’s four children were on the bus. Two of them survived. One did not.
“Out of that experience, I learned a lot about grief and grieving,” Stevens, whose daughter is now enrolled at SMSU and son at USD, said. “I was asked by a local pastor’s wife if I could share some of the things that the community did well to support my family and in areas that they could improve.”
From that, Stevens added ‘author’ to her list of titles. In “The Red Bird Sings the Song of Hope and Other Stories of Love,” published in 2016, she documents how those around her helped her family through the grief, and offers an idea of what grieving people wish others knew.
Before healing through words, though, she healed through birds — homer pigeons, to be exact.
As her second son endured surgeries from the wreck, he wanted to occupy his time with raising chickens. Because their community had strict laws behind raising farm animals in town, they instead raised pigeons.
“He had been through so much that it seemed like a crazy, whack-a-doodle thing at the time,” Stevens said. “It was a great way to do something productive and to give ourselves something to think about other than all of the negative things we were dealing with.”
Though a theory on why homing pigeons know how to navigate over vast distances, some scientists say they use earth’s magnetic field as a guide.
The pigeons provided a type of therapy for the family. Her son had a new getaway and Stevens, described as “nurturing” and “a mother figure” by Annaliese Howe, a third-year elementary education major, had new birds to nest and to learn from.
“Learning that life cycle and seeing the flight patterns and just the sound of them coming home, it’s really kind of a neat thing,” Stevens said.
Stevens has spoken nationally about her book and the process of overcoming grief. She’s also morphed the message into her own education by helping schools understand how trauma impacts students and student learning.
“Stay curious,” the mother, professor, scientist, student and pigeon-raiser tells them, “and don’t let anything stand in your way.”
“I think all of the things that I have done in life has been because I’ve been curious about something,” Stevens said. “That really is the hallmark of a true scientist, to be able to just have that natural wonder about the world and to always want to learn more.”
USD professor Kandy Noles Stevens talks the science behind homing pigeons. Lauren Soulek | The Volante
Pigeon fun facts:
When you see dove releases at weddings or funerals, they are actually white homing pigeons. Doves don’t know how to come home like pigeons do. This is what the Stevens family raises their pigeons for.
Pigeons were used to send messages back and forth from the field to headquarters in both of the World Wars. Multiple pigeons, including Blackie and GI Joe, were awarded medals of honor for their service.
Pigeons mate for life and can breed up to eight times a year, having two babies each time.
The pigeons you are probably most familiar with as bopping around town or hanging out on farms are called either barn pigeons or feral pigeons.
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Pigeon in New York City (file / credit: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
EOGHAN MacCONNELL
HAND-REARED live pigeons were coated in poison, tethered to the ground and used to kill two wild buzzards near the Tipperary-Offaly border, according to BirdWatch Ireland.
BirdWatch volunteers were horrified to discover the two dead buzzard chicks beside three poisonous tethered pigeons near Roscrea.
BirdWatch Ireland Development Officer Niall Hatch said the banned insecticide Carbofuran used to kill the buzzards is so toxic “a quarter of a teaspoonful is enough to kill a fully grown adult”.
“There is a really serious public safety issue here as well,” he said, “whoever is responsible for planting the poison took a real risk themselves”. Had the pigeons been found by children who attempted to rescue them, “you could be reporting on an even worse story today,” he added.
No motive has yet been established. Buzzards eat rabbits, crows, magpies, rats and mice. They will occasionally feed on a dead lamb, but are incapable of killing a lamb, said Mr Hatch.
An indigenous bird, the buzzard was absent in Ireland from the late 19th century until 1933, when a pair bred in Co Antrim. The species has spread slowly down from the north through the 20th century and is now established in almost every county in Ireland.
BirdWatch Ireland say this was a particularly abhorrent incident.
The live hand-reared pigeons were tethered to the ground as bait, their bodies coated with poison and their wings clipped to prevent any chance of escape.
A day after the dead buzzards were found last month, another live, poison-coated pigeon was discovered tethered in the same area.
The buzzards’ nest in Roscrea was being monitored by two young volunteers from BirdWatch Ireland’s Raptor Conservation Project since early spring. They had been charting the progress of the three young buzzard chicks.
One volunteer said: “we had been watching them all summer and it was sickening to see them killed like that for no reason”.
The farmer on whose land the birds were nesting said: “they have not caused me or any of the other farmers in the area any problems whatsoever. I gave nobody permission to come on my land and lay down poison, and whoever did so was trespassing,” he said.
In October 2010, laws were passed making it illegal to use poison to kill birds or animals, with the exception of rats and mice.
An investigation has been launched and anyone with information is urged to contact the National Parks and Wildlife Service on 057 91 37811 or Birr Garda station on 057 91 69710.
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LEYTON: Housing bosses set to use a hawk to keep nuisance pigeons away
By Safira Ali
A HAWK will be used to scare pigeons which are blighting a Leyton estate.
L&Q housing association will be introducing the Harris Hawk to patrol the Beaumont Estate with a handler to get rid of nuisance pigeons.
A spokesman for L&Q housing association said: “We have been talking to residents on the Beaumont Estate and they have told us that the pigeons are causing a real problem. Installing netting or pigeon spikes is not always effective, and it can be very unsightly, so we have been consulting with residents about other options.
“We had similar problems at another L&Q development in Greenwich and found that bringing in a specially trained hawk worked wonders.
“The hawk breaks the habit of the pigeons frequenting an area, and at the end of the programme hawk kites are installed to maintain the deterrent.
“The hawks are very tame and fully insured for public handling, so the children on the estate can interact with the birds and watch what is going on.
“It’s a slightly unusual solution, but the feedback from residents in Greenwich was very positive so we will look at trying it on the Beaumont Estate.”
Local Liberal Democrat councillor Bob Sullivan welcomed the plans. He said he had had numerous complaints from residents about the roosting pigeons messing up their homes.
Cllr Sullivan said: “It is very unusual. Pigeons are a problem all over the place. They roost on the balconies of the flats causing a mess.
“Hopefully the hawk will be able to chase them off. A few people have complained to me about the pigeons. It has been an ongoing problem for years.
“They also roost on the bridge across the road. That is a classic place for pigeons. Putting netting up keeps them away for a while but not for long.
“If they get a hawk it shows that they are looking into the problem. It is something that has to be looked at. It will be interesting to see how it works.”
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.
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Canadian woman battling crippling disease caused by pigeon poop
PETER POWER – THE GLOBE AND MAIL
In the span of a few weeks, Erica Richards has been transformed from a vibrant 23-year-old woman who loved nature to a person battling for her life.
In early January, the Fredericton woman contracted a potentially fatal condition called cryptococcal meningitis, a fungal disease carried in the feces of pigeons.
The debilitating illness attacks the spine and brain, causing severe swelling. It left her confined to a hospital bed in a state of delirium for weeks.
But the most devastating side effect is that Ms. Richards is now blind.
“Be aware of this disease. It could kill a child in a heartbeat,” Ms. Richards said in an interview from her hospital bed.
“It could kill a senior in a heartbeat without you even having to worry about the symptoms. It comes on that fast. If you don’t realize the symptoms, it could kill you, too.”
Her emotional warning comes on the heels of city council’s approval earlier this month of a recommendation that it toughen its animal control bylaw to allow for fines for feeding pigeons. Once the amendment is drafted and declared law, it will give the city’s bylaw enforcement officers the power to ticket and fine offenders.
Ms. Richards said she decided to go public about her illness after learning about a recent newspaper story about a problem with pigeon poop in the city.
“Please don’t feed the pigeons,” she said. “Try to shoo them away if you see them. … It (the disease) is horrible. The pain that you get from this disease is crippling.
“The after-effects are with you for life and you just can’t stop thinking about it. I just want other people to know and try to stay away from pigeons.”
Oddly enough, Ms. Richards said she has no recollection of ever being anywhere near pigeons.
“I am still wondering to this day where I got it,” she said. “I could have stepped in it and brought it into the home. I just don’t know.”
Ms. Richards said the symptoms started with a migraine headache that wouldn’t go away. She was admitted to hospital on Feb. 10 after many days of intense head pain. Shortly after, she went into a coma-like state.
“When I woke up I thought I had a mask over my eyes, but I was wrong. I was blind. I was recently told that I will be blind for the rest of my life. This is a tough thing for a 23-year-old to go through. … My world crumbled around me.”
Ms. Richards said the odds of surviving the disease are 50-50.
“However, I managed to make it through,” she said, battling tears. “I don’t know how but I am still here, and I am glad because I get to warn everyone else of this.”
Cristin Muecke, the Health Department’s regional medical officer, confirmed the disease is often associated with pigeon droppings. She said the illness can’t be spread person to person and is more common with someone who has immune problems.
Ms. Richards, however, said she has never had a problem with her immune system and that’s what’s so puzzling about contracting the affliction.
“I do not want anyone else to suffer this agonizing disease and I ask anyone who is feeding pigeons to stop,” she said. “It’s not just a matter of keeping your neighbourhood clean … it’s a matter of keeping people healthy.”
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Revealed: the mechanism that allows birds of a feather to flock together
Pigeons loaded with GPS backpacks show the secrets of co-ordinated flight control
Anyone interested in the democratic process could do worse than study the group decisions made by pigeons in mid-flight. Scientists have discovered that pigeon flocks are governed by a kind of “democratic hierarchy” that makes sure everyone flies in the same direction.
With the help of tiny GPS backpacks carried by each member of a loft of pigeons, researchers have discovered how large numbers of animals are able to instantly co-ordinate their movements to ensure that they do things as a group rather than as anarchic individuals.
Although the principle has so far only been demonstrated with a smallish flock of Hungarian pigeons, the scientists believe it could also operate on much bigger groups of animals, such as schools of fish and herds of wild buffalo, and might even explain how close-knit groups of people, such as juries, manage to reach a single decision.
“Anyone who has seen flocks of birds or schools of fish is familiar with this phenomenon of large numbers of individuals in a fast-moving group appearing to move in a co-ordinated way, and it’s not immediately clear how they coordinate themselves,” said Dora Biro, a zoologist at Oxford University.
“Our question was, how do groups like flocks of pigeons make decisions about what to do and where to go?” Dr Biro said.
The GPS backpacks carried by the pigeons enabled the scientists to precisely monitor the birds’ movements, relative to each other, every 0.2 seconds of their journey from the point where the scientists released them to their home loft in Budapest, 15km away.
“Previously, people had assumed democratic decisions, where every bird’s preferences are somehow averaged out, and that’s what the group ends up doing. Or there might be a single leader or a small number of leaders that everyone follows,” Dr Biro said.
“But what we were able to do by tracking these birds with individual GPS units was to resolve the leader-follower relationship within the flock. What we found was a more sophisticated and refined mechanism for how the decisions are made,” she said.
“There wasn’t a single leader, nor was there a kind of egalitarian decision-making where everyone had an equal vote. Instead, each bird did have a vote, but the weight that each vote carried differed between birds.
“It represented a kind of hierarchy where the decisions of some birds near the top of the hierarchy carried more weight in terms of what the birds did than the birds lower down the hierarchy, who were still influential but to a lesser degree,” said Dr Biro, who carried out the study with Tamás Vicsek of Eötvös University in Budapest.
“Whether such effects come from some individuals being more motivated to lead, or being inherently better navigators perhaps with greater navigational knowledge, is an intriguing question we don’t yet have an answer to,” Dr Biro said.
The loft of pigeons in the study consisted of 10 birds whose every movement was recorded as they flew in a flock from one location to another. The analysis, published in the journal Nature, described how each bird moved in relation to its neighbours, with some individuals leading more than others.
“It’s neither a completely democratic system, where everybody gets the vote, nor [one with] a single leader or a few leaders responsible for the decisions. But in fact every individual gets a kind of input into what the group as a whole should do,” Dr Biro said.
“If this was honed by evolution, if there was a selective advantage for individuals in the group to make decisions in this way, then it might represent a particularly efficient form of group decision making… It is possible that the mechanism we saw in these pigeons generalises to other species and to other group decision-making contexts, even in humans,” Dr Biro said.
About Pigeon Patrol:
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A sampling of pigeons captured on the streets of Madrid has revealed the bacterial pathogens they carry. Researchers found two bugs that were highly prevalent in the bird population, Chlamydophila psittaci and Campylobacter jejuni, both of which cause illness in humans.
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Fernando Esperón from the Animal Health Research Center, Madrid, Spain, worked with a team of researchers to analyse blood and enema samples taken from 118 pigeons caught using gun-propelled nets.
He said, “the present study demonstrates the extremely high prevalence of two zoonotic pathogens in feral pigeons in Madrid. At the same time, infection with these pathogens did not appear to be associated with any harmful clinical signs in the birds themselves. This leads to the hypothesis that pigeons act as asymptomatic reservoirs of Chlamydophila psittaci and Campylobacter jejuni. These birds may therefore pose a public health risk to the human population.”
Chlamydophila psittaci was found in 52.6% of the pigeons captured, while Campylobacter jejuni was present in 69.1%. Although there have been few reports of disease transmission between pigeons and humans, it can occur by aerosols, direct contact or indirect contact through food and water contamination.
According to Esperón, “Thermophilic Campylobacter species are considered the primary pathogens responsible for acute diarrhea in the world. In fact, in many countries such as England and Wales, Canada, Australia and New Zealand Campylobacter jejuni infection causes more cases of acute diarrhea than infection by Salmonella species.”
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.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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Kandy Noles Stevens holds a homing pigeon outside her home in Marshall, Minnesota. Stevens commutes to Vermillion once a week to teach physical science for elementary in the School of Education. Lauren Soulek | The Volante
Though a theory on why homing pigeons know how to navigate over vast distances, some scientists say they use earth’s magnetic field as a guide.
