EOTO 1 - Pigeons Are Funny Mailmen

 

Pigeons Are Funny Mailmen: A Commentary on Carrier Pigeons

Through the depiction of movies, novels, historical texts, and myths, we've long known about messenger birds. We like to think of these birds as large, grand, birds of prey, but --in reality-- they're, more often than not, dopey, fluffy, fat pigeons. As cool as imagining a mean-looking hawk on the shoulder of Genghis Kahn would be, he actually used a carrier pigeon. Actually, we see the use of carrier pigeons throughout the ancient world --they've been used just about as long as we've known about them. They're referenced in ancient Egyptian documents, roman literature, and throughout the middle ages to near-modern times. They were used for carrying mail, used in World War 1, and were used by policemen until just past the start of 2000s.

So, how do our dopey little birds know where to go? A lot of people --me included before I began researching this topic-- believe that they've memorized and know where they're supposed to go. In actuality, however, pigeons only know one place to go and one place to return to. --I mean, what did we expect of these not-so-bright balls of feather?

"Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home. They had to be transported manually before another flight. However, by placing their food at one location and their home at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly back and forth up to twice a day reliably, covering round-trip flights up to 160km."

Carrier pigeons were most likely developed in order to transport mail and messages more conveniently. They were our first air-mail, bringing good news, bad news, and requests for help to specified locations. They were integral on the battlefield, and the reason many soldiers were saved. In fact, it was common that these birds would get injured and risk their lives in order to deliver these messages. I hope these pigeons were taken good care of, especially the ones who retied after being injured.

Without pigeons, who knows where we'd be today?

Stay Spicy.