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Percentage of pigeons that had their maximum distances in the different categories of distances. The numbers in brackets following the name of the lofts indicate the number of pigeons studied. Flights longer than 2 km are not represented on the graph . It concerns five flights, one of 4.53 km performed by a pigeon from the Peters loft and four flights of pigeons from the Stapfelberg loft (3.94 km, 2×3.95 km, and 5.29 km)
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Feral pigeons are descendants of wild rock pigeons that have adapted to the urban habitat. They have partially conserved the foraging behaviour of their wild ancestors (flights to agricultural areas) but have also developed new habits. Previous studies on the foraging strategies of feral pigeons have given various results, e.g. maximum distances re...
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Context 1
... maximum distances covered were due to a small number of the pigeons (Fig. 1). Over 32% of all pigeons equipped with a GPS receiver were never recorded more than 0.3 km away from their loft and only 6.4% flew further than 2 km. Table 1 compares our results with those of other studies. The maximum distances covered by pigeons in Basel during the present study ranged within the results obtained in Rome, Salzburg ...
Context 2
... GPS method allowed to record commuting flights to the fields, which was not possible with the other method. Figure 1 additionally shows a large variation in the covered distances between the lofts. These differences are related to the strategies employed by the pigeons from the three lofts and are discussed in Foraging strategies. ...
Citations
... According to the results of the Kruskal-Wallis test, there was no significant difference in the amount of anthropogenic debris or chemical composition of the debris in the feral pigeons among the three sex groups (Supplementary Fig. S4). The activity range of female feral pigeons is more extensive than that of male pigeons 28 . This finding is significant, as it suggests that female feral pigeons may be exposed to more diverse pollutants. ...
The terrestrial environment is a significant source of anthropogenic debris emissions. While most studies on anthropogenic debris focus on the marine environment, our research delves into the effects of human activity on anthropogenic debris ingestion by studying the carcasses of feral pigeons. From January to June 2022, we collected the gastrointestinal tracts (GI tracts) of 46 pigeon carcasses in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city. The results revealed that 224 anthropogenic debris samples were found, with the dominant form being fibers (71.9%), which are primarily black (29.9%). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that the main component of anthropogenic debris is polyethylene (PE) (20.5%), followed by anthropogenic cellulose (19.2%) and various other plastics. This study revealed that the amount of anthropogenic debris and chemical composition in the GI tract significantly increase with increasing human activity. These results prove that feral pigeons are valuable indicators for monitoring anthropogenic debris pollution in urban ecosystems. On the other hand, past research focused on analyzing microplastics, but we confirmed that the GI tract of pigeons has a high proportion of anthropogenic cellulose. Importantly, future studies should consider the potential impacts of anthropogenic cellulose in terrestrial ecosystems, as this could have significant implications for ecosystem health.
... La riduzione dell'azione attrattiva che l'ambiente esercita sui colombi (Haag-Wackernagel e Geigenfeind 2008, Williams e Corrigan 1994) dovrebbe essere un elemento costante nella realizzazione progettuale per un singolo edificio, complessi residenziali, industriali e interventi manutentori perché questo tipo di attenzione è richiesto dalle più elementari norme igieniche. Analogamente attenzionata dovrebbe essere la gestione delle risorse alimentari, il cui effetto calamita è di primaria importanza, soprattutto se tali risorse si trovano all'interno dell'ambiente urbano (Murton et al. 1972a, Rose et al. 2006, Sol e Senar 1995. Al contrario, nel caso i colombi si alimentino nelle aree rurali e tornino in città solamente nelle ore serali per riposare, la gestione delle risorse ali- ...
I colombi sono stati presenti nei villaggi prima e nelle città poi, per migliaia di anni (Levi 2013) e ancora oggi continuano a essere una specie di uccelli presente in molte aree urbane. Oggi la città può essere considerata un ecosistema artificiale innestato su uno naturale (Obara 1988), caratterizzato da ambienti frammentati ad alta densità di strutture fabbricate e da superfici con forte capacità di conservazione del calore e livelli elevati di alcune risorse (Rebele 1994), estremamente favorevoli allo sviluppo dei colombi.
Le Amministrazioni Pubbliche sono sempre più spesso sollecitate a porre rimedio alla proliferazione dei colombi in ambito urbano,
trattandosi di uno dei problemi più diffusi e di più difficile soluzione (Treves e Karanth 2003, Dickman 2010, Redpath et al. 2013), in quanto
sono animali estremamente confidenti e capaci di suscitare nell’essere umano tutta una serie di comportamenti epimeletici da non sottovalutare nel momento in cui si redige un protocollo di contenimento della popolazione.
Tuttavia, nel momento in cui la densità supera la capacità di carico biologico, si creano dei conflitti reali e non solo percepiti (Mantovani
1993, Messmer 2009, Dickman 2010).
Non a caso, negli ultimi tempi, i Comuni Italiani maggiormente urbanizzati hanno creato gli Uffici che si occupano di Benessere Animale,
affiancandoli alle Aziende Sanitarie Locali. Pur con funzioni diverse, operando sinergicamente, facilitano il compito istituzionale del medico veterinario pubblico, garantendo un buon livello di benessere agli animali urbanizzati. Questa collaborazione consente inoltre l’attuazione di protocolli finalizzati a migliorare la relazione uomo‑animale.
Il presente Manuale ha lo scopo di esaminare i diversi impatti che il colombo esercita in città sulle attività umane, di introdurre la necessaria conoscenza di base di ecologia ed etologia nonché degli eventuali strumenti di lavoro necessari alle diverse professionalità pubbliche e private potenzialmente coinvolte nella gestione del fenomeno, in modo da poter eseguire interventi atti a diminuire la popolazione a un livello di convivenza armoniosa ed equilibrata, di ridurre i danni agli edifici, ai beni artistici e architettonici e di abbattere i problemi igienico‑sanitari. In generale, avere riscontro dalla cittadinanza dei successi raggiunti e ottenerne quindi la collaborazione.
... Feral pigeons are typically sedentary in urban environments and cover small distances. For example, in Basel, Rose et al. 45 found that 32% of the pigeons remained within 0.3 km of the home lofts, and only 7.5% traveled distances greater than 2 km. This may have led to a high spatial autocorrelation in the abundance and proportion of all plumage color morphs. ...
... Pigeons often use road puddles for bathing after rainfall 47 . Pigeons may also congregate near streets to feed, as demonstrated by Rose et al. 45 . Road surfaces can absorb and retain significant amounts of solar heat, resulting in an average temperature 7-10 °C higher than the surrounding area 61 and may attract pigeons, particularly during the colder months. ...
We examined how urban environments affect the abundance, proportion, and diversity of plumage color morphs in feral pigeons. Five major plumage color morphs (black, blue, white, red, and mixed) were counted in sixty 25-ha plots in Poznań City (Poland). Generalized additive models were used to study the correlations among abundance, proportion of morphs, and environmental factors. Anthropogenic food sources were positively correlated with the abundance of black morphs and the proportions of black and red morphs. The blue morph abundance peaked at a moderate percentage of tall building cover, but its proportion decreased. A similar decrease was observed in the mixed plumage morphs. The abundance of blue morphs decreased, whereas the abundance of white morphs and the proportion of red morphs increased as the distance from the city center increased. The plumage color morph diversity (Simpson) index was positively correlated with food sources and hedgerow density but negatively correlated with street density. Color morph diversity in the study area may be sustained by differential responses of morphs to the environmental features of the urban environment. However, the positive correlation between the abundance of morphs indicates social attraction rather than social isolation among plumage color morphs.
... Individual-level Rock Dove movements remain to be studied. Global positioning system (GPS) tracking (e.g., Rose et al. 2006b, Rose et al. 2006a) has been used to study feral pigeons, but not wild, undomesticated Rock Doves. Here, we perform the first characterization of individual-level movements in wild Rock Doves, to test for the existence of "resident" individuals that have ceased the regular commutes that are considered to be a characteristic behavior of this species. ...
... To depict home ranges, we used (1) autocorrelated kernel density estimator (AKDE) (Fleming et al. 2015), applied with the package ctmm (Calabrese et al. 2016); and (2) minimum convex polygons (MCP) of observations (Mohr 1947), applied with the package adehabitatHR (Calenge and Fortmann-Roe 2015). The latter method was used to compare data on Rock Dove movements with comparable studies on feral pigeons (Rose et al. 2006a, Carlson et al. 2011. We extracted MCP home range using mcp(). ...
... The variation (in the form of high SDs) stems from 2 birds having smaller home ranges (Figure 1). Our Rock Doves had larger ranges, as tested using the Wilcoxon nonparametric test, than those previously reported for urban (W = 7, P-value = 0.018) (Rose et al. 2006a) (MCP mean = 35.71 ± 53.63 ha; n = 12), but not rural feral pigeons (W = 32, P-value = 0.823) (Carlson et al. 2011) (MCP mean = 406.6357 ...
Despite the role of many domestic animals as model organisms, our understanding of their undomesticated conspecifics is comparatively poor. This limits our ability to infer the eco-evolutionary context of phenomena studied in the laboratory and to explore domestication. The domestic pigeon's wild form is the Rock Dove (Columba livia). By studying 5 global positioning system-tagged wild Rock Doves in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, we present the first individual-level assessment of undomesticated Rock Dove movements, revealing extensive use of anthropogenic habitats in both a roosting and foraging context. This association with humans provides tantalizing opportunities for research into the pre-domestication human-pigeon relationship. More generally, this work highlights the value of researching laboratory model species in nature.
... Among bird species, wild pigeons are considered good sentinels for antimicrobial resistance studies and different resistant pathogens have been previously reported in wild pigeons such as E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Chlamydia, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Acinetobacter, among other species including fungi such as Cryptococcus and Candida, and parasites as well as different viruses [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Wild pigeons may be responsible for the zoonotic spread of antimicrobial resistance genes and diverse pathogens due to their wide spectrum flying ability between different locations and their proximity to humans [7,20,21]. Moreover, the ability of wild pigeons to adapt diverse urban habitats and their indoor nesting behaviour altogether contribute to their potential role as a source of infection in other susceptible hosts incluidng humans [22]. ...
Staphylococcus aureus is an important human and veterinary pathogen. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of antibiotic resistance among S. aureus isolated from samples obtained from free-flying wild pigeons and houseflies from different locations surrounding a local hospital in the Greater Durban area in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Environmental fecal samples were obtained from wild pigeons that inhabits the grounds of a local public hospital located on the South Beach area, Durban, South Africa. Housefly samples were collected from three different locations (Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve, Montclair/Clairwood, and Glenwood/Berea) in the greater Durban area, all within a close proximity to the hospital. Following enrichment, identification, and antimicrobial resistance profiling, S. aureus isolates were subjected to DNA extraction using the boiling method. It was found that 57 out of 252 samples (22.62%) were positive for S. aureus. The Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method of antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed and revealed that antibiotic resistance rates to penicillin and rifampicin were the most common, with both returning 48 (84.2%) out of the 57 S. aureus isolates being resistant to penicillin and rifampicin. Antibiotic resistance rates to clindamycin, linezolid, erythromycin, tetracycline, cefoxitin, and ciprofloxacin were 82.5%, 78.9%, 73.7%, 63.2%, 33.3%, and 15.8% respectively. Antibiotic resistance genes were detected using primer-specific PCR and it was found that the prevalence rates of tetM, aac(6′)–aph(2″), mecA, tetK, ermc, and blaZ genes were 66.7%, 40.4%, 40.4%, 38.6%, 24.6%, and 3.51% respectively. Statistical analysis revealed significant (p < 0.05) relationships between the tetM, aac(6′)–aph(2″), and ermC genes and all parameters tested. A significant correlation between the aac(6′)–aph(2″) gene and the tetM (0.506) and ermC (−0.386) genes was identified. It was found that 23 (40.3%) S. aureus isolates were mecA positive, of which 10 (52.6%) out of 19 cefoxitin-resistant isolates were mecA positive and 13 (35.1%) out of 37 cefoxitin-sensitive isolates were mecA positive. The results of the present study demonstrated the detection of methicillin and multidrug resistant S. aureus isolated from samples obtained from wild pigeons and houseflies in the surroundings of a local public hospital in the Greater Durban area in South Africa. The findings of the study may account for the emergence of multidrug-resistant staphylococcal infections. The findings highlight the significant role of wild pigeons and houseflies in the spread of drug-resistant pathogenic S. aureus including MRSA. The conclusions of the present study highlight the important role of wildlife and the environment as interconnected contributors of One Health.
... This species of pigeons may be domestic or may be fugitive from homeland, called as Feral Pigeon. Rose et al., (2006) described that feral pigeons are those pigeons which have adopted the new land towards the urban areas and are descendents of Wild Rock Pigeons. They adopted new habitat for the sake of plenty of food sources in town areas. ...
Twenty Blue Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) including 13 males and 7 females were
collected from Jahangir Tomb and Data Darbar Lahore, Pakistan. The mean lead (Pb) concentration
in the muscles of Columba livia at Jahangir tomb and Data Darbar is noticed 10.4 ppb. The mean
lead concentration of lead in the feathers at both sites is 11.3 ppb. The mean concentration of
muscle lead at Jahangir tomb is more than mean muscles lead concentration at Data Darbar.
Muscles concentration at Jahangir tomb has significant difference (p<0.05) than Data Darbar. It was
found that, feathers concentration at Jahangir tomb has significant difference (p<0.05) than Data
Darbar. Muscles lead concentration in the male at Jahangir tomb is 10.50 ppb, while in female it is
11.25ppb. There is a significance difference (p<0.05) in both the genders at Jahangir tomb. In case
of feathers, there is a significant difference (p<0.05) in feather concentration in both the genders at
Jahangir tomb. There is a non-significance difference (p>0.05) in muscles lead concentration male
and female at Data Darbar. There is a non-significant difference (p>0.05) in feather concentration in
both the genders at Data Darbar. The mean concentration of all the male muscles at both sites
(Jahangir tomb & Data Darbar) is 10.23 ppb, and the mean concentration of all the male feathers is
11.23 ppb, little more than muscles. Thus, there is a significant different (p<0.05) in male muscles
lead concentration and male feathers lead concentrations at both study sites at Lahore.
... Both forms can interbreed, which means that the existence of 'pure' rock pigeon populations is limited to the most remote mountain and coastal regions. Urban pigeons have individual foraging strategies and are flexible enough to adapt to different urban environments (Rose et al. 2006). ...
The environmental and trophic conditions of cities often give rise to very large populations of urban pigeons Columba livia f. domestica, which can cause local health and heritage problems due to accumulations of their droppings. Estimating the size of pigeon populations and defining their spatial patterns of abundance are therefore crucial for effective pigeon management in built-up areas. This article estimates the abundance of pigeons in Pamplona and the factors that explain the variability of pigeon abundance at local level. The Random Forest model of abundance at a local scale of 0.25 km2 cells had very high explanatory power, although its predictive power decreased due to this species’ gregariousness. Abundance decreased with increasing distance from the city centre, and from historic buildings and large parks, but increased as the proportion of the area covered by parks and built-up areas increased. The rock pigeon population in Pamplona was estimated at 8,030 individuals (95% CI: 6,483–9,860). The estimated density of urban pigeons for Pamplona as a whole was, on average, 218 birds/km2, although this figure varied considerably between habitats and areas: the highest values were measured in urban areas with historic buildings (exceeding 600 individuals/km2; in 35.8% of the 0.25 km2 cells, more than 200 individuals were estimated). Pigeon densities fell to ca. 250 birds/km2 in urban areas lacking large parks or green spaces whether near or far from historic buildings. In the peri-urban areas (i.e. arable fields, scrub and woodland), densities decreased to around 10–50 individuals/km2. In the city of Pamplona, although the population density of urban pigeons did not reach the numbers observed in other northern Spanish cities such as Barcelona, the habitat preference patterns in urban gradients are consistent with those documented in other European regions. We identify specific urban areas for population control and recommend measures such as feeding bans and waste and facade management to make it difficult for urban pigeons to access roosting and breeding sites in buildings.
... (3) Both species may potentially disperse over long distances, with documented episodes of straight-line mobility exceeding 5 km in feral pigeons (Rose et al. 2006) and 10 km in monk parakeets (Avery and Shiels 2017;Senar et al. 2021b;Borray-Escalante et al. 2023), which could increase the risk of spreading NDV to new areas where the virus is absent. (4) A potentially exclusive feature of monk parakeets may be the capacity to shed virus for a long time because it was shown that experimentally infected parrots excreted virulent NDV intermittently for extremely long periods, and for more than a year in some cases (Erickson et al. 1977), although this has not been demonstrated in the monk parakeet. ...
Due to their large population sizes, synanthropic birds, including native and invasive species, can transmit pathogens to other vertebrates, and even humans. In particular, Newcastle disease virus (NDV) can cause lethal infections in a wide range of avian species as well as mild infections in humans and other non-avian hosts. In this study conducted in Barcelona, Spain, we assessed the seroprevalence of NDV in three synanthropic species comprising one native species (feral pigeon, Columba livia var. domestica; N = 16) and two invasive parrots (monk parakeet, Myiopsitta monachus, N = 50; and rose-ringed parakeet, Psittacula krameri, N = 23). These species are considered to have played important roles in the introduction and spread of NDV due to their high population densities, gregariousness, and prolonged viral shedding through faeces. We found a high seroprevalence of NDV in the feral pigeon (56%) and monk parakeet (38%) but a low seroprevalence in the rose-ringed parakeet (4%). These differences may be explained by the frequent interactions among feral pigeons and monk parakeets in their daily lives facilitating viral transmission from the former to the latter, because the feral pigeon is a well-known NDV reservoir. By contrast, the low seroprevalence of NDV in rose-ringed parakeets could be explained by its less frequent contacts with other urban bird species. The high seroprevalence of NDV in feral pigeons and monk parakeets provides new insights into the roles of novel interspecific relationships in the transmission and spread of NDV, and the risk of these synanthropic species as a source of NDV in urban environments. Finally, our findings highlight the need to monitor NDV in both native and non-native birds to prevent its spread to poultry, wildlife, and humans.
... Whether the use of antibiotics to treat animals might play a role in this spread of resistance in pigeons remains to be studied. The presence of ST8149 and ST206 in pigeons collected from farms located 18 km apart was rather unexpected since these birds usually live in a small perimeter, but flights over longer distances were also observed especially for foraging in fields [ 13 ]. Another hypothesis might be that these resistant bacteria are carried by determinants shared between the two farms, such as care-takers, animals or food. ...
... As it was not possible to definitively know which alarms were caused by pigeons, it is possible that there is no relationship between number of pigeons and track alarm triggers. Currently, there is only literature to suggest pigeons remain relatively close to their roosting and nesting habitats (Rose et al. 2006), but no studies assessing the effect of moving food sources short distances to influence nesting and roosting sites. Inquiry into whether the placement of the feeders or artificial roosting sites at locations far from SkyTrain tracks would offer further understanding, as it could potentially aide in reducing track alarm triggers by encouraging pigeons to source food and roost in alternative areas. ...
... Information related to the dispersal and home range of pigeons is scarce with little data available about the rate of exchange between pigeons among cities (Giunchi et al. 2007). However, one study suggests pigeons can cover short distances outside of city limits, less than 10 km (Rose et al. 2006), and another proposes that feral pigeons characteristically have short (less than 0.1 km) natal dispersal distances (Johnston and Janiga 1995). Further, Richardson et al. (2016) found that there was minimal dispersal between colonies, the largest dispersal range being 6.1 km. ...
Pigeon (Columba livia) abundance in urban environments can result in human-wildlife conflicts such as excrement exposure, disease risk, and nuisance behaviour. Traditional methods of pigeon control (i.e., netting, spikes, lethal control, flying raptors) rely on exclusion and removal principles, which are not effective in the long-term.
