14/06/2009
Pigeon baiting
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I was given a taxidermied pigeon from @lukehelliwell after its starring role in a photo shoot.
Curious to see how the live pigeons would react to it I decided to reunite pigeon with its friends at Hyde Park. Here’s what happened.
^ Pigeons first introduction to his friends at the park
^ An edited version at high speed. Pigeon gets mauled by a dog and scares a child…
So it seemed to me that at the start the other pigeons were too busy foraging and the swarm of birds arriving too frenetic for any of them to be particularly bothered by “Pige-God” however after this initial furore they approached cautiously and appear to sense that there was something not quite right about this one. In the first video you can see the other pigeons crane their necks and back up a little (1:37) after initially rushing for the bread. Ultimately though they didn’t really care and just wanted food.
If any ethologists happen across this post I’d be interested in a more scientific explanation. Also if there is anybody with mad animatronic skills that can help me 2.0 Pige-God do get in touch.
Dan B
14/06/2009 @ 09:09
Pige-God is indeed a regal bird. Yes, unfortunately he is dead. But at the same time, one could refer to Pige-God as a ‘deadity’.
Julien
20/06/2009 @ 22:32
This is mad, very weird and really funny to see how much the dead pigeon is respected by the alive ones! This might not save pigeons from stupidity but at least they got spirit.
Call it Pigeon mash-up 1.0!
Leigh B
03/07/2009 @ 10:30
You’re giving the bird brains too much credit… living compactly in flocks as they do they are constantly anticipating the movement of the other birds around them – rather like 2 boxers sparing. When it comes to your observation that the pigeons appear to crane their necks and back up a little they are in fact instinctually anticipating the movement of the dead bird. As no movement occurs it breaks the fluidity of their anticipated response which results in the behavior you have witnessed. It is likely that this behavior would also be visible in many animals who often mass in tightly compacted spaces, perhaps even humans would react in such a way should the dead human be convincingly lifelike – I look forward to seeing that test!
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