by Ryan Ponto | Apr 2, 2017 | Bird Netting
- The ability to pass on and improve on knowledge is known as cumulative culture
- Until now only humans were thought capable of passing on such information
- Over generations pigeons streamlined their route to be more direct and faster
Homing pigeons are known for their impressive ability to navigate home over long distances.
Now a new study suggests this skill may be passed on between generations.
Researchers believe that homing pigeons share the human capacity to build on the knowledge of others, which explains why their navigational accuracy improves over time.
This is the first time that the ability to find and improve on knowledge over generations has been seen in a non-human species.
Researchers from Oxford University conducted a study testing whether homing pigeons can gradually improve their flight paths over time.
They removed and replaced individuals in pairs of birds that were given a specific navigational task.
Researchers simulated generational succession by replacing birds familiar with the route with inexperienced birds that had never flown the course before.
The idea was that experienced individuals could pass their experience of the route down to the next pair generation.
This would enable the collective intelligence of the group to continuously improve the route’s efficiency.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest that over time the student does indeed become the teacher and pigeons learn from each other.
Results showed that the birds’ homing performance improved consistently over generations – they streamlined their route to be more direct, making them faster than those that worked the route out on their own.
Dr Sasaki, co-author of the study, said: ‘At one stage scientists thought that only humans had the cognitive capacity to accumulate knowledge as a society.
‘Our study shows that pigeons share these abilities with humans, at least to the extent that they are capable of improving on a behavioural solution progressively over time.
‘Nonetheless, we do not claim that they achieve this through the same processes’, he said.
Dr Dora Biro, co-author of the study, added: ‘One key novelty, we think, is that the gradual improvement we see is not due to new ‘ideas’ about how to improve the route being introduced by individual birds.
‘Instead, the necessary innovations in each generation come from a form of collective intelligence that arises through pairs of birds having to solve the problem together – in other words through “two heads being better than one.”‘
Moving forward, the team hopes to build on the study by investigating if a similar style of knowledge sharing and accumulation occurs in other multi-generational species’ social groups.
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 Ryan Ponto | Apr 1, 2017 | Bird Netting
JANAKPURDHAM: Over a dozen of pigeons were found dead in and around the Janaki Temple in Janakpurdham in Dhanusha district recently.
According to a social activist Nathunilal Das, the pigeons domesticated in the temple area were found dead and the cause of the death was unknown till now.
He said many of his pigeons also died in past three days.
The Dhanusha District Livestock Service Office is yet to ascertain the disease behind the deaths.
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 Ryan Ponto | Mar 31, 2017 | Bird Netting
LUBBOCK, Texas (KLBK) — A team of administrators and students at Texas Tech University are working together to fight the mass pigeon population on campus. They’re now working on distributing a birth control that is safe for the pigeons to eat, and that won’t allow their eggs to complete fertilization process.
“It’s used to make the eggs infertile, it breaks up the layers so the egg yolk and egg white do not connect. So the bird will keep laying eggs but the eggs will not fertilize. It does not harm the birds,” Erin Bohlander, a Ph.D. student in the Natural Resource Management Program at Texas Tech said.
Sean Childers, the Assistant Vice President of Operations at Texas Tech, heads the project and said the birth control won’t save them money immediately but they expect it to drastically in the future.
“We spend over $100,000 a year on man-hours and resources to clean up pigeon remains around campus. We wanted to take a step back and think more globally. How can we get ahead of this situation? What can we do that is non-harmful and humane and get ahead of the population,” Childers said.
The birth control is called “Ovo” and will be mixed within feeders with cracked corn. Bohlander said they anticipate having to feed all year long since Pigeon’s breed year-round.
“We’re hoping to humanely decrease the population by 90-95 percent,” Bohlander 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 Ryan Ponto | Mar 29, 2017 | Bird Netting
If anyone is concerned about the number of pigeons flocking at various locations around Crookston, it’s going to be several months before anything can be done to reduce the local population’s numbers.
That was the word from City Administrator Shannon Stassen this week, after Ward 6 Council Member Tom Vedbraaten said a local businessperson approached him with complaints about the number of pigeons perching in various spots downtown.
The City, in partnership with SunOpta, had a trapper come in last year, Stassen said, but he said the trapper only works during winter’s coldest months because the pigeons are more susceptible to being lured by bait.
“They want it as cold as it can be so they can bait them,” Stassen explained. “They won’t flock up at this time of the year; winter is the only time they can catch them.”
The last time the trapper came to town, he nabbed around 450 pigeons, he noted. Stassen said the trapper did a quick inventory of the Crookston pigeon population this past winter and didn’t think any trapping activity was warranted at the time.
“They do seem to be flocking up,” Mayor Wayne Melbye said.
Stassen said the trapper, who traps pigeons throughout the region, will be contacted in the fall for some potential winter 2017-18 trapping.
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 Ryan Ponto | Mar 28, 2017 | Bird Netting
Sequencing the genome of the Endangered Pink Pigeon may help protect the rare bird from a human introduced pathogen.
The Pink Pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri) is an Endangered species on the Island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The existence of the species is somewhat of a miracle considering that in the 1990’s its population fell to an alarming 10 individuals. Now the population hovers around 400, but the birds still face a number of threats.
While the sudden growth in population seems like a good thing, it had an unintended consequence. Increasing the population at such a rapid rate from only 10 individuals resulted in a population with low genetic variation. Low genetic variation can make species more vulnerable to threats.
The population faces threats of invasive species and a human introduced pathogen called Trichimonas gallinaeleaves, which is toxic to approximately 60% of Pink Pigeon offspring. The portion of the population that is not harmed appears to have some immunity to the pathogen.
Researchers at the Earlham institute and the University of East Anglia want the Pink Pigeon to be the first endangered bird species to have its genome sequenced. The belief is that by sequencing their genes, they can identify immune system genes that could protect them against the pathogen. The head of the campaign to sequence the Pink Pigeons genes commented:
Halting species extinction may be possible when the main cause of extinction has a genetic basis, particularly when genetic variation needed to supplement and rescue the species is still available in either the captive or wild populations. Our plan uses the pink pigeon to show how this can be achieved, creating a framework that could be easily transferred to other species across the world.
Sequencing the Pink Pigeon’s genome would give researchers more information to save the species from extinction. Pink Pigeons are an important part of the Mauritius island ecosystem–hopefully new research will help them thrive once again.
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)
