Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I guess what will? What's that mango? Did you hear
Speaker 1: about that pigeon that's sold at auction for over a
Speaker 1: million bucks? You know, I know you may find this surprising,
Speaker 1: but I actually don't keep up with the world of
Speaker 1: pigeon auctions. But seriously, that did somebody actually pay a
Speaker 1: million dollars for a pigeon? It's actually slightly better than that.
Speaker 1: Somebody paid one point four million dollars for a pigeon,
Speaker 1: and they did it on this site. It's an auction
Speaker 1: site called PIPPA, which is short for Pigeon Paradise, which
Speaker 1: almost makes all of this better. But to be fair,
Speaker 1: this was no ordinary bird. This high priced Belgian pigeon
Speaker 1: is actually an esteemed champion racer and his name is Armando.
Speaker 1: He's five years old. He's widely considered the best of
Speaker 1: the best long distance pigeons in the world. So for
Speaker 1: the buyer, having a champion bird as young as Armando
Speaker 1: means plenty of chances to breed him and to hopefully
Speaker 1: pass on his traits to future flyers. You know, I
Speaker 1: actually don't think I realized that investing in pigeons could
Speaker 1: be this lucrative. I know you should have got into
Speaker 1: it years ago. Kid. Uh, most of us don't give
Speaker 1: pigeons nearly as much credit as they deserve. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, the ones we're used to seeing can look
Speaker 1: drab or dirty. But the truth is, pigeons are exceptionally
Speaker 1: smart animals and they've been using that brain power for
Speaker 1: the good of mankind for thousands of years. So in
Speaker 1: light of that, I thought we could use today's episode
Speaker 1: to give pigeons their due finally, from their roles and
Speaker 1: scientific breakthroughs to all the times they delivered mail for us.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot to cover. Let's dive in. Y
Speaker 1: Hey their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 1: Will Pearson and always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 1: Mangesh Ticketer And on the other side of that soundproof
Speaker 1: glass showing off his dance skills by doing the Kuku pigeon.
Speaker 1: That's our friends and producer Tristan McNeil. And I have
Speaker 1: to say Burt may have invented this dance and may
Speaker 1: have made it famous on Sesame Street back in the seventies.
Speaker 1: I think it was, but Tristan I don't know about you, Maga.
Speaker 1: I feel like he's perfected it. He really has, you know,
Speaker 1: gave actually sent me some research on this on doing
Speaker 1: the pigeon And apparently in the original opening, Burt is
Speaker 1: just hanging out watching home movies of pigeons projected on
Speaker 1: his wall, and then a few seconds into the footage,
Speaker 1: he tells the viewer, I love pigeons more than anything
Speaker 1: else in the world besides oatmeal. And then he busts
Speaker 1: out doing this whole choreograph, dancing and routine and and
Speaker 1: I just remember any of that, but it sounds so good. Well,
Speaker 1: I can't speak to his oatmeal obsession, but Bert's right
Speaker 1: about pigeons. I mean, they are much cooler than we think.
Speaker 1: Just as an example, I was reading this week that
Speaker 1: pigeons are actually capable of understanding abstract concepts including space
Speaker 1: and time. Are you with me on this? And it's
Speaker 1: pretty interesting, So it's definitely not something that you'd guessed
Speaker 1: just by looking at them. But a couple of years back,
Speaker 1: there was this team of scientists at the University of
Speaker 1: Iowa that showed just how smart pigeons really are. So
Speaker 1: the team tested a group of pigeons by placing them
Speaker 1: in front of computer screens, and then they would show
Speaker 1: them one of two lines, either this six centimeter line
Speaker 1: or a centimeter line, and each of the lines was
Speaker 1: paired with its own symbol, So anytime the pigeons saw
Speaker 1: a line, they were supposed to pick the symbol that
Speaker 1: corresponded with the correct length. So whenever the birds got
Speaker 1: it right, the scientists fed them this treat is a
Speaker 1: way to reinforce that they had chosen, you know, the
Speaker 1: correct answer on this, which shows that pigeons can tell
Speaker 1: the difference between different line lens. But you said pigeons
Speaker 1: perceived time as well, right, Yeah, So this is actually
Speaker 1: where things get really interesting, because the scientists tested the
Speaker 1: pigeons not only on the length of the lines, but
Speaker 1: also on how long they were displayed for, so either
Speaker 1: two seconds or eight seconds, and the results showed that
Speaker 1: pigeons connect the incepts of space and time in this
Speaker 1: really interesting way. So whenever the birds saw a short
Speaker 1: line displayed for eight seconds, they would pick the symbol miant.
Speaker 1: For a long line, because the line had been displayed
Speaker 1: for a longer period of time, the pigeons actually judged
Speaker 1: it to be longer in length. Than it really was.
Speaker 1: And this way of thinking also persisted when the birds
Speaker 1: were tested on long lines being displayed. So anytime the
Speaker 1: pigeons saw a long line displayed for just two seconds,
Speaker 1: they would pack the symbol mint for an eight second duration.
Speaker 1: Because the line was longer in length, the pigeons thought
Speaker 1: it existed for a greater amount of time. So that
Speaker 1: would mean pigeons actually perceived time in relation to space, right,
Speaker 1: which is what humans do, like using the number of
Speaker 1: people in the line to gauge how long a weight
Speaker 1: might be, for instance. Yeah, that's exactly right, and studies
Speaker 1: have shown that elephants and a few other primates tend
Speaker 1: to connect these concepts as well. The only thing weird
Speaker 1: here is that pigeons actually lacked the part of the
Speaker 1: brain that processes space and time that other animals have.
Speaker 1: So pigeons are making these same abstract connections that we are,
Speaker 1: but they're doing so through some other method that we
Speaker 1: actually haven't figured out yet, which is pretty amazing. It
Speaker 1: actually reminds me of this study I read about a
Speaker 1: while back where this Japanese psychologist who's named Shigeru Watanabe,
Speaker 1: he trained a bunch of pigeons to distinguish between paintings
Speaker 1: done by Picasso and one's done by Monet, and the
Speaker 1: birds got so good at recognizing the two different styles
Speaker 1: that they could even sort out works of Cubism and
Speaker 1: Impressionism done by other artists. I mean, it kind of
Speaker 1: makes you wonder if they preferred one style over the
Speaker 1: other when they were looking. I mean, it's funny because
Speaker 1: the same researcher later conducted a different pigeon experiment where
Speaker 1: he trained a group of them to judge the artwork
Speaker 1: of elementary students. And apparently he showed the birds two
Speaker 1: dozen paintings made by students in Tokyo, and he taught
Speaker 1: the pigeons which of the paintings could be considered good
Speaker 1: and which one should be labeled bad. I mean he
Speaker 1: did this by by taking the grades assigned by the
Speaker 1: school's teachers and a panel of other adults. And anyway,
Speaker 1: once the pigeons had a grasp on what made a
Speaker 1: good painting or a bad painting, they were presented ten
Speaker 1: new paintings, and amazingly, the pigeons were able to correctly
Speaker 1: identify which these paintings would get low marks by the panel.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is that the findings suggests that pigeons
Speaker 1: can naturally categorize things based on shape, color, and even texture,
Speaker 1: which is impressive because you know, not a lot of
Speaker 1: other species have that trade. Yeah, that's true. I guess
Speaker 1: it's one more unexpected thing we have in common with them, Right,
Speaker 1: and this list keeps getting longer. Apparently there's one more thing.
Speaker 1: Pigeons are the only non primates we know with ability
Speaker 1: to recognize letters. So in a two thousand and sixteen
Speaker 1: study this comes out of New Zealand, a team successfully
Speaker 1: trained four pigeons to recognize dozens of English words, including
Speaker 1: whether or not they were spelled correctly, and the smartest
Speaker 1: pision in the group learned to staggering fifty eight words,
Speaker 1: which it was able to distinguish from roughly a thousand
Speaker 1: made up words. In contrast, the dullest pigeon, or maybe
Speaker 1: the least motivated of these birds, still managed to build
Speaker 1: an impressive twenty six word vocabulary during its time in
Speaker 1: the lab. All right, so these birds weren't actually reading
Speaker 1: the words right like they They didn't learn what the
Speaker 1: words meant or anything. They just memorized what the words
Speaker 1: look like. Is that right? Yeah, that's right? So they
Speaker 1: didn't have the meanings of its just spellings. But you know,
Speaker 1: while wild pigeons are smart enough that they can learn
Speaker 1: all these neat tricks, it's not like they're ever really
Speaker 1: called upon to be art critics in the wild. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it does sort of
Speaker 1: seem like pigeons have all these powers of perception, but
Speaker 1: maybe aren't living up to their potential in the wild.
Speaker 1: I mean, but there's got to be a reason that
Speaker 1: they're capability skills, wouldn't you think? Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: true biologically, but in all the experiments we mentioned, the
Speaker 1: pigeons were kind of making distinctions based on things that
Speaker 1: humans taught them, like impressionist art has all these features,
Speaker 1: or the word banana looks and a spell like this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I can imagine there are cases where recognizing
Speaker 1: visual patterns might help with pigeon, you know, forage for
Speaker 1: food or a vata predator, Like maybe one notices their
Speaker 1: nest isn't the way they left it and that tips
Speaker 1: them off that something dangerous is in the area or
Speaker 1: something like that. But going back to what you said
Speaker 1: about humans guiding and rewarding pigeons behavior, what's funny is
Speaker 1: that you know something we unconsciously do, like including outside
Speaker 1: the laboratory setting. For instance, back in two thousand eleven,
Speaker 1: there were these two researchers in Paris, and they discovered
Speaker 1: that pigeons can remember the appearance and behavior of specific people.
Speaker 1: So here's how it went. Over the course of multiple sessions,
Speaker 1: these two researchers went to a local park and they
Speaker 1: fed the same flock of pigeons. So the first time
Speaker 1: they go out, one researcher fed the birds and then
Speaker 1: just stood there while they ate this food, I mean,
Speaker 1: while the other researcher put some food down and then
Speaker 1: immediately turned hostile and chase the pigeons away. I'm sure
Speaker 1: everybody else in the park was enjoying this. But the
Speaker 1: researchers then repeated the experiment again and again, except during
Speaker 1: the subsequent visits, neither of them chased away the pigeons.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing. The pigeons actually remembered which researcher
Speaker 1: had been nice to them and which one had showed
Speaker 1: them away, And so whenever the researchers returned, the pigeons
Speaker 1: continuously avoided that researcher who had shunned them. In the
Speaker 1: first place, even though he hadn't done anything like that
Speaker 1: on any other occasion. That's pretty interesting. So what kind
Speaker 1: of like visual cues were the pigeons picking up, Like
Speaker 1: was the hostile researcher bigger or more intimidating or facial
Speaker 1: hair that, like, what what was the distinction? Yeah, when
Speaker 1: I was reading about this that that was what I
Speaker 1: had assumed as well, is that maybe one researcher just
Speaker 1: look less threatening or was wearing more attractive color or
Speaker 1: something like that. But they actually accounted for all of this.
Speaker 1: In the experiment. The researchers were the same sex, age, build,
Speaker 1: skin color, they dressed similarly. It's true that each wore
Speaker 1: a different colored lab coat, but you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: they also switched lab coats on different visits, and the
Speaker 1: pigeons could still always tell which researcher had been hostile
Speaker 1: on that first encounter. So the most likely explanation for this,
Speaker 1: according to experts, is that pigeons recognize the researchers by
Speaker 1: their faces. So not only does that show how pigeons
Speaker 1: might use their perceptive powers in the wild, it also
Speaker 1: shows that pigeons are really smart about which visual information
Speaker 1: to keep track of like you know, take the different
Speaker 1: colored lab codes for instance. It seems like the obvious
Speaker 1: feature to remember, like since the lab code would have
Speaker 1: you know, covered like of their body. But it's like
Speaker 1: our version of feathers, you would think at least. And
Speaker 1: yet the pigeons zeroed in on the researchers facial traits,
Speaker 1: which is something that couldn't easily be changed day to day.
Speaker 1: And so according to these researchers, that distinction is likely
Speaker 1: something pigeons have picked up on, you know, over their
Speaker 1: years of living in cities and around other humans, which
Speaker 1: makes a ton of sense. And I'm actually glad you're
Speaker 1: bringing up that city connection. We we've talked a lot
Speaker 1: so far about the science of pigeons, So what do
Speaker 1: you say we change gears in and talk a little
Speaker 1: pigeon history and how they came to cities in the
Speaker 1: first place. That sounds good, But before we get into that,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius and we're talking about all the amazing things you
Speaker 1: never knew about the humble pigeon. And speaking of which,
Speaker 1: one thing I was surprised to learn this week is
Speaker 1: just how far back our relationship with pigeons actually go.
Speaker 1: For instance, archaeologists have uncovered figurines, mosaics, and other works
Speaker 1: of art depicting pigeons at dig sites in modern day
Speaker 1: i Rock, and those artifacts are thought to date as
Speaker 1: far back as b C. There's also evidence that pigeons
Speaker 1: were a staple food in the Middle East and Europe
Speaker 1: for thousands of years, and when you take all of
Speaker 1: that together, it's likely that the common rock pigeon, which
Speaker 1: is the species you find in most cities, may have
Speaker 1: been the very first bird that humans domesticated. And if
Speaker 1: I remember, did that happen mainly because pigeons were an
Speaker 1: easy way to like source meat or something, well, I
Speaker 1: think that was certainly their main appeal at first. Wild
Speaker 1: game was often seen hard to come by in Mesopotamia,
Speaker 1: so these protein rich rock pigeons would have been a
Speaker 1: godsend in all likelihood, though some hungry ancient farmer probably
Speaker 1: noticed the birds milling around his crops and decided it
Speaker 1: would be better if he let the birds roost on
Speaker 1: his farm rather than drive him away. But one of
Speaker 1: the side effects from spending so much time in close
Speaker 1: quarters was that humans started to take liking to the birds,
Speaker 1: and not just the way they tasted. Against all odds,
Speaker 1: humans started seeing reflections of their own humanity and pigeons,
Speaker 1: for instance, Unlike other animals, the pigeons were monogamous and
Speaker 1: couples working together to raise their offspring. They were seen
Speaker 1: as intelligent and fiercely protective when necessary, but also peaceful
Speaker 1: and calm when left to their own devices. And all
Speaker 1: these cultures kind of adapted the pigeon as a religious
Speaker 1: symbol or a deity as a result. For example, um,
Speaker 1: there are three different goddesses that were symbolized by the pigeons, ishtar, Aphrodite,
Speaker 1: and Venus, which spans Babylonia and Greece and and Roman culture.
Speaker 1: And in Christian iconography, which I know a ton about,
Speaker 1: the pision is used to represent the Holy Spirit, or
Speaker 1: at least that's what I read now. I know we
Speaker 1: probably have a lot of listeners thinking here that you're
Speaker 1: getting your birds mixed up, because didn't those religions use
Speaker 1: doves as symbols, not pigeons. So prepared to have your
Speaker 1: mind blown, because scientifically speaking, the words dove and pigeon
Speaker 1: refer to the same animal. Uh, they're actually one of
Speaker 1: three eight different bird species in the Columbida family. All Right,
Speaker 1: so you're telling me that the pure white dove, a
Speaker 1: universal symbol of peace, is really just another kind of pigeon,
Speaker 1: and vice versa. The gray rock pigeon you saw in
Speaker 1: the park the other day is also known as a
Speaker 1: rock dove. Al Right, So what about the birds themselves? Like,
Speaker 1: how did every city in America wind up overrun by pigeons? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean overrun is actually a good word for it.
Speaker 1: Rock pigeons are actually an invasive species. They were originally
Speaker 1: native only to Eurasia and northern Africa, but that changed
Speaker 1: in the early sixteen hundreds when European settlers like the French,
Speaker 1: introduced the birds to North America for the very first time,
Speaker 1: and the domesticated birds have been brought along as a
Speaker 1: source of food or in some cases, just to be
Speaker 1: raised as a hobby. But somewhere along the way, many
Speaker 1: of them escaped to cities and made new homes from
Speaker 1: themselves on the ledges of buildings, which probably reminded them
Speaker 1: of the cliffs back home that they nest in the
Speaker 1: wild on. And from that point on, pigeons became a
Speaker 1: fixture in American towns and cities really thriving in parts
Speaker 1: because pigeons aren't picky eaters. They don't have special diets
Speaker 1: like many other birds. So whatever trash or leftovers they
Speaker 1: found on city streets that kind of suited their taste
Speaker 1: just fine. Which I don't know why I always think
Speaker 1: about this quote, but there was that thirty Rock line
Speaker 1: where Tracy Jordan's sees a pigeon eating trash and he
Speaker 1: just goes stop eating people's old French fries. Pigeon have
Speaker 1: some self respect, don't you know? You can fly, which
Speaker 1: is so good. But that lack of self respect has
Speaker 1: benefited them over the years. Uh. The world pigeon population
Speaker 1: is estimated at four million, with seven million pigeons living
Speaker 1: in New York City alone. That's almost a bird for
Speaker 1: every New Yorker minus the bronx. I was gonna say
Speaker 1: the population in the areas about that, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: And all those birds in the US are descended on
Speaker 1: that initial crop of European runaways. Yeah, they're they're all imported,
Speaker 1: But to be fair, that wasn't always the case. So
Speaker 1: when rock pigeons were first brought to American shores in
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century, the content actually had its own thriving
Speaker 1: indigenous pigeon species, and that's the passenger pigeon. And according
Speaker 1: to Mental Flass, as many as five billion passenger pigeons
Speaker 1: lived here during the colonial era, accounting for somewhere between
Speaker 1: twenty five of all birds in the entire country. However,
Speaker 1: as you probably know, that's not the case anymore. Over.
Speaker 1: Hunting and habitat loss, all of that kind of brought
Speaker 1: an end to the passenger pigeon in the early twentieth century,
Speaker 1: with the last of their kind, this domesticated female named Martha,
Speaker 1: passing away In all right, this is probably the strangest
Speaker 1: transition that I'm going to make today, but you queued
Speaker 1: it up so nicely for me. So, speaking of dead pigeons,
Speaker 1: one thing I've always wondered is, if New York is
Speaker 1: so chock full of them, then how are there not
Speaker 1: dead ones everywhere you look like? At least, not that
Speaker 1: I'm complaining about this, but if you're thought about that,
Speaker 1: you know I I haven't thought about it. But but
Speaker 1: now I'm curious what you learned, Like, did you get
Speaker 1: an answer for this? Well, it turns out that pigeon
Speaker 1: corpses really are something of a rarity in American cities,
Speaker 1: and the biggest reason for this is that the sheer
Speaker 1: number of predators that pigeons are up against in urban
Speaker 1: areas is greater than you would think. Like, as someone
Speaker 1: at the Smithsonian Ones put it, rats, cats, raccoons, foxes, possums,
Speaker 1: they all love them. Some pigeon is what they said.
Speaker 1: That is Sacha Smithsonian thing, so Smithsonian. So you're saying
Speaker 1: most pigeons get eaten up by predators, But what about
Speaker 1: like the old timers. I mean, there have to be
Speaker 1: some pigeons that make it to old age. So where
Speaker 1: did those guys end up? Well, you're definitely talking about
Speaker 1: the minority here. I mean, most wild pigeons survive for
Speaker 1: five or six years on average, and it's compared to
Speaker 1: fifteen years or even longer in captivity. So the ones
Speaker 1: that aren't eaten, like the lucky ones, who have a
Speaker 1: lot more control over their debts, they tend to choose
Speaker 1: these peaceful nooks and crannies for their final resting places.
Speaker 1: So maybe the air ducts of a building or the
Speaker 1: corner ledge of a skyscraper some whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: not quite as visible. So I guess it really does
Speaker 1: depend on where you look. Yeah, I mean, you've got
Speaker 1: to really want to find a dead pigeon. I guess
Speaker 1: it's a heck of a scavenger hunt. But you know,
Speaker 1: the whole time we've been talking about this, I I
Speaker 1: keep thinking of that story about Nixon's inaugurations. Do you
Speaker 1: remember this one? I don't think I do remember this
Speaker 1: Affairly had a tough go at his first inauguration in
Speaker 1: nineteen six nine, like the Vietnam War was in full swing,
Speaker 1: and Nixon's motorcade wound up being pelted with tomatoes and rocks.
Speaker 1: So when his second inauguration came around in seventy three,
Speaker 1: Nixon remembered how messy things had gotten the last time,
Speaker 1: and he wanted to take every possible precaution to avoid
Speaker 1: another embarrassment. And this is how far he went. Right.
Speaker 1: He had his people paint the branches of trees along
Speaker 1: the parade route with this special chemical called roost no more.
Speaker 1: It was this gooey chemical that was supposed to make
Speaker 1: a pigeon's feet so itchy that it one't want to
Speaker 1: above the motor kid, I guess. And yeah, and obviously
Speaker 1: he was trying to avoid um droppings falling on the car.
Speaker 1: But as you can probably tell about the fact that
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this story, things did not go as planned.
Speaker 1: So for starters, the pigeons didn't mind their itchiness of
Speaker 1: roost no more, I guess. And what's worse, they didn't
Speaker 1: mind the taste of it either. So so many pigeons
Speaker 1: ate this highly toxic paste that the day of the parade,
Speaker 1: the entire route was like littered with dozens of dead
Speaker 1: and dying pigeons, which is so much worse than dirty windshields,
Speaker 1: No kidding. Can you imagine being there? That would have
Speaker 1: been weird? All right. Well, now that we've seen the
Speaker 1: time when pigeons and humans didn't get along so well,
Speaker 1: I feel like we should take a look at a
Speaker 1: few examples of the opposite, you know, the times when
Speaker 1: pigeons and people lived in perfect harmony. Yeah, let's do that,
Speaker 1: But first another break. Welcome back to part time genius Samango.
Speaker 1: I know it can be dicey to try and pin
Speaker 1: down the etymology of a phrase. Any idiom you think
Speaker 1: of can probably have a half dozen or so false
Speaker 1: origin stories, But there is one that I came across
Speaker 1: this week that was just too interesting not to talk
Speaker 1: about it. So you've heard the term stool pigeon before, right,
Speaker 1: like an informer or rat or whatever. That's right. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of a strange phrase when you think about it,
Speaker 1: because number one, how does the stool fit into any
Speaker 1: of this? And number two, pigeons aren't that talkative, and
Speaker 1: you know, as far as birds go, they're actually pretty quiet.
Speaker 1: So I hadn't thought about this before, but I'm pretty
Speaker 1: curious where does the term actually come from. Well, the
Speaker 1: working theory is that the phrases this throwback to an
Speaker 1: old sixteenth century hunting practice where pigeons were used as
Speaker 1: decoys to lure in larger birds. As for the stool part,
Speaker 1: there are a couple of options here. One is that
Speaker 1: these decoy pigeons were tied to actual stools, like the
Speaker 1: idea of being that the live pigeon would flutter in
Speaker 1: place catch the eye of these other animals. And then
Speaker 1: the other option is that stool is really a corruption
Speaker 1: of this word stole, which is an old word for
Speaker 1: tree stump. It's spelled s t o a l e.
Speaker 1: And in either case, though, the stool was whatever you
Speaker 1: tie the decoy pigeon too. And then sometime in the
Speaker 1: mid eighteen hundreds of Americans started applying the term to
Speaker 1: a different type of decoy. Those would be these police
Speaker 1: informers who hung around the criminal world or the criminal underworld.
Speaker 1: Really and I'm not sure who first made that connection
Speaker 1: or why, but that does seem to be where it
Speaker 1: might have come from. Well, pigeons may not be very
Speaker 1: talkative themselves, but they are pretty amazing when it comes
Speaker 1: to delivering other people's messages. And that's thanks to their
Speaker 1: innate sense of direction. You know, pigeons can find their
Speaker 1: way back home from pretty much anywhere, even if scientists
Speaker 1: still haven't figured out how they do it. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: actually remember we covered some of these theories way back
Speaker 1: in that Superhero Animal episode, So if you guys are
Speaker 1: curious about that, definitely check it out. Definitely. And and uh,
Speaker 1: despite all the mystery around their navigational skills, the reality
Speaker 1: is that humans have been using pigeons as messengers since
Speaker 1: at least as far back as three thousand b c. UH.
Speaker 1: The ancient Greeks used trained pigeons to communicate the results
Speaker 1: of the Olympics, and as you might recall from our
Speaker 1: genghis Kan episode, the Mongols developed a whole pigeon based
Speaker 1: postal system to help connect the growing empire. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: from what I was reading this week, they weren't the
Speaker 1: only ones who put pigeons in charge of their posts.
Speaker 1: So the birds were apparently used to carry mail in
Speaker 1: the Middle East. This was as far back as the
Speaker 1: fifth century b c. And pigeon posts still existed in
Speaker 1: some regions until as recently as the early twentieth century.
Speaker 1: You take New Zealand's Great Barrier Island for instance. They
Speaker 1: relied on a handful of competing pigeon postal services for
Speaker 1: the better part of a decade in the late eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: and since the island is about sixty miles away from
Speaker 1: the mainland, train pigeons were the fastest way for residents
Speaker 1: to communicate back and forth. They even issued these special
Speaker 1: stamps that were only valid for pigeon post and incidentally,
Speaker 1: they're believed to be the first examples of air mail
Speaker 1: stamps in the world. So what about telegraphs, though, weren't
Speaker 1: those around in the late They were, But you know,
Speaker 1: even with that, service was spotty, and the birds were
Speaker 1: pretty resilient. Like in wartime telegraph wires could be easily
Speaker 1: cut and you never knew, you know, who might be
Speaker 1: listening in on this, you know, if they were kind
Speaker 1: of tapping the line or something. So pigeon messengers became
Speaker 1: this crucial means of communication. Actually, one famous instance comes
Speaker 1: from a carrier pigeon named share on Me that flew
Speaker 1: for the U. S. Army in France. This was back
Speaker 1: during World War One. Now, Sharemy delivered twelve important messages
Speaker 1: during his military career, but on his final mission, this
Speaker 1: was October of nine, the pigeon was shot, actually shot
Speaker 1: both in the breast and the lag by enemy fire.
Speaker 1: And despite this injury, Sharemy flew back to his roost
Speaker 1: with the message capsule still tied to his wounded leg.
Speaker 1: It's just unbelievable, which is crazy, But what the message though.
Speaker 1: It was from a battalion of a hundred and ninety
Speaker 1: four soldiers who had been isolated from other American forces
Speaker 1: and people just assumed that they were dead. And so
Speaker 1: thanks to share on Me, the army learned of the
Speaker 1: soldiers whereabouts and they were able to get them to
Speaker 1: safety back behind American lines. And I mean, I know
Speaker 1: in the bird's mind he wasn't trying to rescue a
Speaker 1: bunch of soldiers. He just wanted to make it back
Speaker 1: home alive. But I mean, it's still pretty incredible. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is a little surprising. The enemies were like clever
Speaker 1: enough to slice telegraph wires, but they didn't think to
Speaker 1: like bring in a few hawks to like feed on
Speaker 1: the pigeons and disrupt the communication. It feels like a
Speaker 1: similar solution. But you know, here's another thing I had
Speaker 1: no idea about until this episode. Do you know that
Speaker 1: two pigeons unknowingly helped establish the Big Bang theory. I
Speaker 1: hate to ask this question, what are we talking about
Speaker 1: the sitcom or like the model of the universe, because
Speaker 1: one of these seems way more plausible than the other,
Speaker 1: so weirdly, it is the ladder. Before I get into
Speaker 1: how the pigeons fit into this, let let me give
Speaker 1: some quick background. So back to scientists in New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias were experimenting with their radio
Speaker 1: telescope and they were trying to measure the minimum brightness
Speaker 1: of the sky. But to their dismay, something was interfering
Speaker 1: with their readings and whatever it was, it was producing
Speaker 1: a pronounced hissing noise now spoilers. What they actually heard
Speaker 1: that day was an ancient cosmic background radiation, or as
Speaker 1: Smithsonian calls it, quote, an echo of the universe at
Speaker 1: a very early moment after its birth. So, although they
Speaker 1: didn't know this at the time, Wilson and Penzias had
Speaker 1: just found what would ultimately become the first proof for
Speaker 1: the Big Bang theory. And in the moment, though the
Speaker 1: men weren't sure what they were hearing. They thought it
Speaker 1: could be a stray signal from nearby New York, or
Speaker 1: maybe their equipment was faulty. It really could have been anything,
Speaker 1: but at one point the most likely suspects were actually
Speaker 1: a couple of pigeons that had set up shop in
Speaker 1: the antenna array, and when the scientists discovered the birds Ruth,
Speaker 1: their hopes were dashed. It was starting to look like
Speaker 1: this hissing sound was really just this embarrassing revelation that
Speaker 1: it was a couple of pigeons mucking about their instruments.
Speaker 1: I kind of love that this is what it boiled
Speaker 1: down to, like it's either the afterglow of the birth
Speaker 1: of the universe, or you know, some birds just go
Speaker 1: into the bathroom. It's one of the other who knows,
Speaker 1: I know, but Wilson and Fansias couldn't rule it out,
Speaker 1: like they had to get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 1: And so here's how Robert Wilson later described what they did. Quote,
Speaker 1: we took the pigeons, put them in a box and
Speaker 1: mailed them as far away as we could in the
Speaker 1: company mail to a guy who fancied pigeons. He looked
Speaker 1: at them and said, these are junk pigeons and let
Speaker 1: them go. But before long they were right back again. Wait,
Speaker 1: so the same pigeons came back and like after being
Speaker 1: mailed across the country. Yeah, because they have those homing
Speaker 1: systems so they can find their way back from thousands
Speaker 1: of miles away or whatever. But you know, thankfully the
Speaker 1: scientists were eventually able to get the array cleaned out,
Speaker 1: and after a year or so of experiments, they concluded
Speaker 1: that the hiss they heard was indeed cosmic radiation and
Speaker 1: not defecating pigeons. The birds confusing contra ribution to history, though,
Speaker 1: hasn't been forgotten. And if you go to the Smithsonian
Speaker 1: Air and Space Museum today you can see the actual
Speaker 1: metal trap that Wilson and Penzi has used to trap
Speaker 1: the squatter pigeons some fifty five years ago. That is
Speaker 1: quite the honor, and I feel like a well deserved one.
Speaker 1: So what do you say we end on that note
Speaker 1: and get right into the fact off. So here's a
Speaker 1: quick one. Because birds such as pigeons have a much
Speaker 1: higher threshold for detecting movement, they would likely see a
Speaker 1: movie shown at today's industry rate as a series of
Speaker 1: flashing slides like the frames we use. Twenty four frames
Speaker 1: per second is fast enough to give the illusion of
Speaker 1: fluid movement to our eyes, but pigeon vision has to
Speaker 1: be able to see signs of fast moving prey, so
Speaker 1: twenty four frames per second is just way too slow
Speaker 1: for the birds to perceive. All right, Well, pigeon vision
Speaker 1: maybe based on ultra quick movement, But do you know
Speaker 1: what's even faster than a pigeon? Mango? A lot of things, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of things are, But I was specifically talking
Speaker 1: here about bees because apparently back in a pigeon fans
Speaker 1: here and beekeeper had this friendly little contest in Germany.
Speaker 1: They challenged each other's pet of choice to this grueling
Speaker 1: three and a half mile race, and wouldn't you know it,
Speaker 1: the b one by a full twenty five seconds. That
Speaker 1: is impressive, But I mostly want to know how this
Speaker 1: contest happened in the first place, Like how board must
Speaker 1: these guys have been to like organize a race like that?
Speaker 1: It's in a question strange but okay, Sin, Since we're
Speaker 1: on the subject of pigeon losses, I have to tell
Speaker 1: you that there are catfish in France that have learned
Speaker 1: to lunge out of the water in an effort to
Speaker 1: hunt pigeons. And while the catfish aren't the most adept
Speaker 1: hunters on land as you might imagine, they do pretty
Speaker 1: well for themselves in the water, and their success rate
Speaker 1: of catching pigeons is an impressive twenty eight percent. That's
Speaker 1: a lot higher than I would have guessed, to be
Speaker 1: honest with you. Since we're talking pigeons, I couldn't leave
Speaker 1: the episode without, of course talking about Nicolette Huslam, who
Speaker 1: you might remember was totally obsessed with pigeons. I feel
Speaker 1: like that fact always has to come up here with
Speaker 1: and one female pigeon in particular, so Tesla one set
Speaker 1: of her. I love that pigeon as a man loves
Speaker 1: a woman, and she loved me as long as I
Speaker 1: had her. There was a purpose to my life such romance.
Speaker 1: You know, I was looking up scientists and pigeons this
Speaker 1: week too, And one thing I didn't realize was Darwin
Speaker 1: was also obsessed with pigeons. He belonged to a London
Speaker 1: fancy pigeon club, and he owned a flock, and in fact,
Speaker 1: mental Flass reports his nine book The Variation of Animals
Speaker 1: and Plants under Domestication has two full chapters on pigeons. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: dogs and cats share a single chapter. That seems that
Speaker 1: seems fair. So all right, well, here's what I really like.
Speaker 1: This artist named Laurel roth Hope Crochet's suits for urban Pigeons. Well,
Speaker 1: I already like where this is going. Tell me more. Well,
Speaker 1: she basically creates these disguises that pige can wear to
Speaker 1: look like extinct birds. It's basically, you know, causeplay for pigeons,
Speaker 1: I guess, But I guess it's also to raise awareness
Speaker 1: for what our parks could have looked like if we
Speaker 1: were a little more careful with nature. I like the idea,
Speaker 1: and I do hope I get to see some of
Speaker 1: these extinct not extinct birds in the city. And I
Speaker 1: like the fact so I'm gonna give it to you
Speaker 1: this week. Well, thank you so much, and it definitely
Speaker 1: wasn't easy, but I kind of like that fact. But
Speaker 1: that does it for today's episode of part Time Genius
Speaker 1: from Gay Tristan, Mango, Lowell, and me. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.