Pigeons In Tiny Backpacks Are Measuring Air Pollution In London

Pigeons In Tiny Backpacks Are Measuring Air Pollution In London

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Pigeon backpacks measure air pollution in London.

Air pollution caused by diesel vehicles in London is bad – so bad that it is blamed for 9,500 premature deaths a year and has prompted Britain’s Supreme Court to order the government to make a plan for cleaning up the skies.

Now what is commonly seen as another scourge of the city, the pigeon, is helping in the fight against smog. On Monday, 10 birds outfitted in miniature backpacks carrying pollution sensors and GPS trackers took to the air, and they started tweeting – via beak, perhaps, but definitely via Twitter – their devices’ readings of nitrogen dioxide and ozone. Londoners who tweet at the Pigeon Air Patrol’s Twitter handle, @PigeonAir, are getting responses from the birds about air pollution in their area, and a live map of the pigeons’ location can be viewed online.

The patrol is, by the admission of the technology and marketing companies that created it, a publicity stunt meant to raise awareness about the city’s harmful air. Birds, it should be noted, are also subject to all sorts of nefarious ailments caused by air pollution, including lung damage and low body weight.

“There’s something about taking what is seen as a flying rat and reversing that into something quite positive,” Pierre Duquesnoy, creative director at marketing agency DigitasLBI and the brains behind the pigeon pollution monitors, told the Guardian.

Plume Labs, the tech firm, gave assurance that a veterinarian was involved in the project to ensure the safety of the pigeons, whose names include Coco, Julius and Norbert.

The London pigeons are not the first birds to don backpacks for an environmental cause.

Vultures in Lima, Peru, have been adorned with GPS trackers and GoPro cameras to hunt down illegal garbage dumping sites.

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Pigeons Swarm Chennai Airport, Nomads Roped In To Shoo Them Away

Pigeons Swarm Chennai Airport, Nomads Roped In To Shoo Them Away

Pigeons Swarm Chennai Airport, Nomads Roped In To Shoo Them Away

CHENNAI: A number of pigeons are swarming the Chennai airport premises for the last three days. Authorities were forced to hire a  nomadic community to shoo them away.

Efforts by the airport personnel to shoo them away have failed; as the birds come back again and again, giving anxious moments to the authorities.

Many birds were spotted around the runway today, authorities requisitioned the services of Narikorava community, who are well versed in shooing them away using traditional techniques.

The gypsies were on the job to shoo the birds away, and have been very successful.

As part of the State Safety Programme, preventing wildlife (bird/animal) strikes to aircraft was identified by Directorate General of Civil Aviation as one of the most important safety priorities.

Have a Pigeon Problem?

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 eight years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279, or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Flying High No More: Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Caught In Kuwait

Flying High No More: Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Caught In Kuwait

Flying High No More: Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Caught In Kuwait

It’s 2017 and we have clearly come a long way from the days pigeons were used to deliver letters.

Case in point, this pigeon in Kuwait that was caught with a little bag full of drugs out for delivery. According to Al Arabiya, Kuwait custom officials caught the pigeon as it was crossing over from Iraq to Kuwait. Upon searching the little grey bag strapped to its back, they discovered 178 narcotic pills. What a comedown for the little birdie.

This is not the first time that drug smugglers have used pigeons for delivery. In 2016, a pigeon was caught trying to smuggle drugs into a Costa Rica prison. The bird will not be charged for this offence.

Pigeons Aren’t Bird-Brained, Can Understand Concepts Of Space, Time

Pigeons Aren’t Bird-Brained, Can Understand Concepts Of Space, Time

A new study finds that pigeons can discriminate the abstract concepts of space and time but they seem to use a different region of the brain than humans and primates to do so.

WASHINGTON: Not only human beings but even pigeons can discriminate the abstract concepts of space and time, according to a study. However, they seem to use a different region of the brain than humans and primates to do so.

The finding, published in the journal Current Biology, adds to growing recognition in the scientific community that lower-order animal species such as birds, reptiles, and fish are capable of high-level, abstract decision-making.

“Indeed, the cognitive prowess of birds is now deemed to be ever closer to that of both human and non-human primates,” said Edward Wasserman, from the University of Iowa in the US.

“Those avian nervous systems are capable of far greater achievements than the pejorative term ‘bird brain’ would suggest,” he said.

Humans are able to perceive space and time, even without the aid of inventions such as a watch or a ruler. The region of the brain that helps humans make those abstract concepts more tangible is the parietal cortex, part of the cerebral cortex and the outermost layer of the brain. The cerebral cortex is known to be a locus of higher thought processes, including speech and decision-making.

However, the pigeon brain does not have a parietal cortex, or at least one developed enough to be distinct. So, the birds must employ another area of the brain to discriminate between space and time.

Pigeons were put through a series of tasks called the “common magnitude” test.

The birds were shown on a computer screen a horizontal line either 6 cm or 24 cm long for either 2 seconds or 8 seconds.

The researchers said the results show pigeons process space and time in ways similar to humans and other primates.

Have a Pigeon Problem?

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 eight years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279, or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca

Pigeongram: In Social Media Era, Odisha Keeps Age-Old Practice Alive

Pigeongram: In Social Media Era, Odisha Keeps Age-Old Practice Alive

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BHUBANESWAR: With the onslaught of social media and e-communication services, pigeongram may have become a thing of the past across the globe, but the Odisha Police continues to keep alive this unique practice.

The service was put to test yesterday when the Odisha Police, in association with the Bhubaneswar chapter of Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), flew 50 pigeons at OUAT Grounds here to deliver missives of heritage conservation to Cuttack, 25km away.

The ceremony was attended by people from all walks of life, including schoolchildren from Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

Former DGP and state convener of INTACH, A B Tripathy, praised the police department for preserving the age-old tradition.

The determination of the men who run India’s only police pigeon service has “guaranteed the survival of a practice” that was prevalent in the Mughal era, he said.

SP (signal) BN Das said Odisha was the only state in India to use carrier pigeons to communicate among police stations.

The Odisha Pigeon Service started in 1946 when 200 pigeons were handed over to police personnel by the army on an experimental basis to communicate in areas with no wireless or telephone links, Das said.

The service was first pioneered in the mountainous Koraput district, and its success and reliability resulted in its introduction to almost all the districts of the state with over 700 sturdy Belgian Homer pigeons ferrying messages to assigned destinations.

For years, these dependable birds have been a vital link between remote police stations, where traditional communications failed, beating storms, disasters – and birds of prey, the SP (signal) said.

The messages, written on a piece of paper, were inserted into plastic capsule and tied to the feet of the Belgian Homer Pigeons, which can fly 25 km in just 15 to 25 minutes and live up to 20 years, he added.

The service, headquartered in Cuttack, was extensively used during floods and Super Cyclone in 1999, as radio networks were disrupted, said a senior police officer, adding that the pigeon service was also the only line of communication to the marooned town of Banki during the disastrous flood in 1982.

Ornithologist Panchami Manoo Ukil feels this practice needs to be preserved for the next generation to get an idea about the ancient traditions.

“Pigeon service is an art that dates back to the Mughal days. The birds delivered messages to the harems and battlefields. This unique tradition has historical significance and should be preserved,” he said.

Anil Dhir, a member of INTACH, said the heritage service has generated a lot of interest among the collector’s community.

“All the pigeons reached Cuttack within an hour,” he added.

Have a Pigeon Problem?

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 eight years in a row.

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New Zealand Votes ”Tipsy” Pigeon Bird Of The Year

New Zealand Votes ”Tipsy” Pigeon Bird Of The Year

New Zealand Votes ''Tipsy'' Pigeon Bird Of The Year

The New Zealand pigeon or kereru has a liking for fermented fruits, which contain alcohol.

New Zealand has voted for its bird of the year 2018 and it’s one known for being “drunk, clumsy and a bit of a clown”, organizers said on Monday.

The New Zealand pigeon or kereru has a liking for fermented fruits, which contain alcohol which means that the birds can get quite tipsy at times, displaying clumsy antics and falling off trees, reports the BBC.

This year’s campaign saw celebrity endorsements from actor Stephen Fry and comedian Bill Bailey, while one species even had a profile on dating app, Tinder.

The kereru is one of the few native birds in New Zealand that is not endangered.

“They have quite a reputation of being large and clumsy and being a bit of a clown,” Megan Hubscher of Bird and Forest, a conservationist group that runs the annual vote, told the BBC.

The bird loves fruit and depending on the season, these fruits might be fermented. Hence, the bird will get drunk.

“There are a lot of videos around of kereru getting drunk and stumbling around in a comical manner,” Hubscher said, adding “That’s part of the charm. they’re just very loveable birds”.

The whole campaign to elect a bird of the year is run to draw attention to New Zealand’s birds and the threats they face.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern congratulated the kereru even though she had been rooting for the taiko, or black petrel.

Have a Pigeon Problem?

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 eight years in a row.

Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279, or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca