by johnnymarin | Mar 13, 2018 | Pigeon Patrol's Services
They are the scourge of British streets and dubbed ‘rats with wings’ for their unhygienic habits.
But scientists believe an army of urban pigeons could be recruited to help prevent the spread of disease and toxins by acting as constant ‘biomonitors.’
The feral birds have an unedifying reputation as pests, but their ability to spread out and occupy all parts of a city could be harnessed to keep track of toxins and diseases which damage human health, say experts.
Rebecca Calisi-Rodriguez, of the University of California, believes pigeons are a perfect tool for monitoring dangerous pollutants because they live off human waste and are therefore inhabit same areas as city dwellers and are exposed to the same contaminants.
The California team said pigeons could serve as ‘the proverbial canary in the coal mine’ because they ‘walk on the same pavements, breathe the same air and eat the same food as humans.’
“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,” said said Dr Calisi-Rodriguez, associate professor of neurobiology, physiology and behaviour.
“They have a very small home range, spending the their life within a few neighborhood 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.”
There are 18 million feral pigeons in Britain so scientists would have a huge supply of birds which could act as biomonitors.
In a recent study, the team set out to find out if pigeons could highlight areas which were high in lead pollution.
Although lead has been banned from products for decades – because it harms brain development – it is still present in the many cities, often in old painted street furniture, or children’s play equipment.
Ass Prof Calisi-Rodriguez’ studied the blood levels of pigeons and children living in New York between 2010 and 2015 and found that both birds and humans inhabiting the same neighborhoods experienced similar patterns of lead in their blood.
The team has also received funding to start screening pigeons for other toxins including, pesticides, fire retardants, BPA, and other heavy metals. They are even monitoring the genetic make-up of the birds to see how stress affects DNA.
“Birds, like us, are vertebrates,” added Ass Prof Calisi-Rodriguez. “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. They produce crop milk in their crop sacs to feed their chicks when they first hatch.
“The process is controlled by the same hormones that control human milk production, and both types of milk have essential nutrients the babies need to survive. So as you see, what we learn in birds can have far-reaching implications.”
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 12, 2018 | Bird Deterrent Products
From fledging time, two groups of homing pigeons were protected for most of the time from wind exposure. Instead, they were subjected to artificial odorous winds. One of the two groups was subjected to an odorous wind of olive oil from the S and an odorous wind of a solvents’ mixture (“synthetic turpentine”) from the N. The other group underwent the opposite treatment (odorous wind of olive oil from the N and odorous wind of synthetic turpentine from the S). The birds of the first group, released from two points 21.0 and 26.5 km W of the aviary flew in a northerly direction when olive oil was applied to their nostrils and in a southerly direction when synthetic turpentine was applied. Under the same conditions, the birds of the second group flew in the opposite directions. These results support the olfaction hypothesis of pigeon navigation (Papiet al., 1972).
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)
