ANIMAL » PIGEONS

Is This a Sculpture or a Bird Torture Device?

Marina Galperina — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:09 +0000

These “hand-raised” pigeons are confined to India’s National Academy of Fine Art gallery, perching on the copper “branches” of a sculpture rigged with radio transistors. As they hop, scamper and shit about, they tweak the white noise filling the room. Animal rights groups aren’t happy with the arrangement.

Expert veterinarians insist that Bangalore-based Naveen Thomas’ white art noise “can affect the birds’ hearing and homing abilities.” Surely, that plucks your heartstrings. Or not. Maybe you don’t recognize pigeons for the intelligent, loyal, vulnerable feathered creatures that they are. Fine. But does this sound right?

“I find it interesting to hear how the sound fluctuates every time a bird sits on the copper wire… I’m treating the birds better than they were treated where they had come from. I would even use a monkey if I could.”

Right then. In that spirit, excuse me while I rescue a pound dog to shoot it for my snuff film.

Or not.

Pigeons: Smarter Than You Think (Or Care To Admit)

Bucky Turco — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:45:17 +0000

According to new study, pigeons just moved up the food chain with new data suggesting they can count. Tests conducted on the lowbrow birds at University of Otago in New Zealand proved that their math abilities were on par with monkeys, a trait most smart-people-types assumed was exclusive to primates.

Lead researcher and comparative psychologist Damian Scarf said it wasn’t easy to get the project off the ground as it took about a year just to get them to “recognize groups of one, two or three objects on a screen and peck at them in proper numerical sequence,” reports Time magazine.

He originally tried to perform the experiment with chickens, but that didn’t work out too well. “I actually started with chickens. I was trying to compare them with some previous work on how pigeons learned to use touch screens to access food. But it was hopeless. Chickens are totally impulsive, they just peck at anything,” wrote Scarf in an email to the Science Media Centre.

Although I’m not exactly sure what this all means in the bigger scheme of things, as someone who couldn’t pass Sequential Math II, I find it very fascinating nonetheless. (Photo: William van der Vliet)

Pigeon Flying in New York City

Marina Galperina — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:34:08 +0000

Brooklynite photographer Aaron Wojack taps into NYC’s avian subculture. Call them “flying rats” all you want, but for some New Yorkers, pigeon flying is their “salvation from daily life” and “the streets.” Check out stellar shots of rooftop coops and pigeon flyers looking skyward below.

For some perspective, here’s pigeon lover Mike Tyson on pigeons:

One morning I woke up and found my favorite pigeon, Julius, had died. I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honor him. I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher. I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand and he was out cold, convulsing on the floor like an infantile retard.

See picks from the Pigeon Flying photo essay and newer additions below:

Rednecks Trapping and Killing NYC’s Pigeons for Sport

Bucky Turco — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:05:37 +0000

Even if New Yorkers don’t really respect pigeons and call them tree rats and such, they’re still our tree rats and the thought of hillbillies roaming the city streets with nets capturing Gotham’s iconic dirt-covered birds is just as revolting as the caged shoots they’re being sold for. So until this is resolved, the pigeon is getting upgraded to peregrine hawk status or something, which means if you fuck with it, you’re fucking with us. Game on.

Parting Shot: It’s Murda

Bucky Turco — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:27:06 +0000

Harlem World’s naturalist blogger, James O’Brien of Yojimbot, captured photos of a pigeon murder in progress and the killer escaping with the evidence.

Photo: James O’Brien

PETA Hates Mike Tyson’s Love of Pigeons

Bucky Turco — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:57:24 +0000

Well, that didn’t take long. After Mike Tyson announced he’ll begin filming for a new pigeon racing show to air on Animal Planet, PETA used the opportunity to slam him: “Tyson’s claim to care about pigeons is rather incredulous given that he chooses to tout using them in a ’sport’ that—like horseracing—exposes them to danger and death.”

Tyson Returns to Bird Lover Roots with Reality Show

Marina Galperina — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:16:16 +0000

The ballroom dancing/paparazzi head pounding former heavyweight champ’s relentless mainstream presence continues. Mike will host “Taking on Tyson,” a pigeon racing show on Animal Planet. The boxer has always loved birds, keeps a few hundred at lofts in NJ and Brooklyn and was originally inspired to box by his pigeons: “I never hurt anybody until somebody hurt one of my birds.”

Image: Getty

Parting Shot: On The Fly

Will Sherman — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:30:35 +0000

New York City isn’t the only place overrun by pigeons: a flock of the dirty birds take flight at Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Photo by Nayan586

Pigeon Sex Is For the Birds

ANIMAL — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:00:00 +0000

There’s no better way to end the week than with a short clip of pigeons fucking. Even with the footage slowed down, this is by all means a quickie. It was either this or a video of a soon to die mouse on the street struggling to get out of a glue trap—which is by far one of the cruelest methods for killing vermin, and this coming from a rodent hater.