It's weird to think that pigeons existed before big cities, they lived in the forest and ate bugs instead of garbage. amirite?

Rocky cliffs, actually. And they would forage for the wild ancestor of the french fry. Pigeons are actually feral rock doves that we domesticated a couple thousand years ago.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Kind of sad we've abandoned them. We used to build little houses for them and steal their eggs. Now they live on the streets and have to care for their eggs.

by sondricka 11 months ago

Their eggs are still being stolen (and replaced by duds) but unfortunately just in an attempt to control their population. And it's really surprising how much the trust towards humans is built into them even today. You can literally re-domesticate a feral pigeon by feeding it and leaving the window open until it knows you. Preferably a couple. They'll just roll with it and become your pets. They sit on your finger, eat from your hand and everything.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

This person has fed several pigeons before

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Guilty as charged lol. I currently have five that hang around my window all day. One of them is not scared of me whatsoever (nor mine or the neighbors cat) has repeatedly entered my home without my knowledge and was very reluctant to leave each time so I guess you could call that one semi feral at this point. Here's some pics of the vermin and the neighbors cat. It's like being in a pest themed Disney movie. Oh and if anyone thinks about doing this bear in mind that they'll alert you to their hunger by knocking on the window with their beaks and they rise with the sun so you will too. Other than that they're literally perfect.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

That's cute AF

by Anonymous 11 months ago

You can't redomesticate a domesticated species, it would have to evolve into a wild species to loose its domestication. Taming a feral pigeon is no different to taking in a nervous street dog and teaching them not to fear humans.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Are you Mike Tyson 🧐

by Weary-Macaron-5696 11 months ago

How are there so many of them when they suck so much at nesting?

by kdare 11 months ago

They guard the egg. They barf in the baby. There's millions of them. They do alright. Their cousin probably lived if they didn't make it. Plus they seem to be monogamous, so they'll get to try again next time.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

For as much as their nests suck, they're hard to get to, pidgeons don't nest in trees but prefer crevices or overhangs, you'll find them under bridges or overpasses and cats don't go there as often. Added to that those man made structures are placed well and are usually quite sturdy, so even if your nest is two mars bar wrappers, that egg ain't going anywhere.

by Same_Song_1332 11 months ago

Sex

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Nice

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Ikr?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Stupid dove don't even know it's a seagull. I don't think we can explain trains to that guy.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Potatoes?

by AloneBanana7856 11 months ago

no, salt and oil

by Anonymous 11 months ago

And the french fry bean.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew.

by Lsteuber 11 months ago

Frankish Fries Never cared for them

by Fun-Measurement7706 11 months ago

False. Pigeons didn't exist until they built the first Target parking lot.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Target specifically?

by Braynor 11 months ago

How else were they gonna know where to land?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Here the seagulls own the Target parking lot. Not even the Target near Lake Michigan, the one like 10 miles inland.

by Top_Neighborhood8616 11 months ago

Seagulls, like some birds, have wings, so they can leave the water easily. So 10 miles is not that surprising. But where I live, they fly to McDonald's parking lot. What do they eat in a Target's parking lot?

by Braynor 11 months ago

The garbage from the Burger King dumpster.

by Top_Neighborhood8616 11 months ago

This

by TechnicianMain7730 11 months ago

Wait until you find out about rats and mice

by Bailee40 11 months ago

Hamsters are more impressive honestly. They're just native to like Syria.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

The best ones come from Siberia.

by Various-Art-2839 11 months ago

No no. Is hamsta. Siberian hamsta

by Various-Art-2839 11 months ago

Filigree!

by Green_Bend 11 months ago

What about rats and mice 🤔 Did humans breed them or something? Are the little hamsters a human breeding experiment, like pugs? Hamsters don't seem too bright and I think they can die if they get cold, like they go into a state of torpor and just die, so… they are strange little creatures

by carol67 11 months ago

Hamsters come from the Steppe of Russia and Mongolia, they can handle the cold, we (human) just don't tend to give them the burrowing material in the tanks we keep them in. They'll dig a cosy little burrow and make a nest if you give them the materials to do it, but don't expect to see them running in a wheel if you do, they'd much rather be nice and warm until dinner time

by Anonymous 11 months ago

We actually bred them to be eaten. Then, the fad died and they were released.

by Bogisichblanca 11 months ago

They were also bred as Homing Pigeons to deliver messages starting around 3000-5000 years ago.

by Beneficial-East 11 months ago

That's the main contributor to feral pigeons today

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Not sure I believe this. How do you train a pigeon where to go?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

You dont train them to go other places, they have a natural instinct to go home. So say you have a bunch of messenger pigeons raised in Rome, you then give them to delegates that are sent out to other places like Constantinople, Carthage, Gaul or wherever. Then when you need to send a message to Rome you grab a pigeon from Rome and it'll fly home with it. This has been around for millenia

by Parkerwinfield 11 months ago

So did the Romans have a bunch of guys throwing out food for them in all the parks along the way back to Rome? Seems like a lot of trouble when most things can be solved by a quick text message.

by geobahringer 11 months ago

Pre-radio they were critical for getting messages sent in the battlefield to HQ. There are birds that have gotten medals for getting messages home under fire or injured. .... Not that the bird necessarily understood that. They're a smart but stupid bird. Interesting point, carrier pigeon has also been used to transport flash drives full of data in some very poor infrastructure areas of Africa. More of a scathing demonstration of how slow the Internet is than anything else, as it had higher bandwidth than the regular lines.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Okay, assuming you're not trolling. This was two thousand years before the invetion of the mobile phone. And no they didn't have people feeding them, the pigeons found their own food on the way.

by Parkerwinfield 11 months ago

Google it. It only works one way. "Home"ing pigeons. They use earth's magnetic field, sight, smell, hearing....pigeons were originally bred to be pets but have now been discarded by most of humanity

by Anonymous 11 months ago

I think some people do still eat them in cities.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Wait, we bred hamsters to be eaten? As what, appetizers? Like, hamster filets on ritz crackers?

by Green_Bend 11 months ago

Do you think the most tender cut off a hamster is between the shoulder blades too?

by Bogisichblanca 11 months ago

Breaks out x-acto knife and large magnifying glass…

by Green_Bend 11 months ago

donkey Kong music intensifies

by Bogisichblanca 11 months ago

It's the same with humans though…

by OkOne159 11 months ago

Mammals

by Oweissnat 11 months ago

The older pigeons were made of sterner stuff, and were much better at dive bombing bald men, children, and anything edible left outside.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Actually not so much, pigeons are one of the first animal we domesticed, so they lived with us. And when we found them useless we threw them out, it's why they live around humans to this day because they were taken care of for so long they don't know how to survive without us. It's really sad to think about, I didn't know we did the poor things so dirty and then act like they're the problem.

by sauerraegan 11 months ago

Dang… so the ol one footed pigeon hobbling around the parking lot is like a vagrant wondering why we've abandoned their species… "just a crumb from the loaf, please, sir… I'm so hungry" Human: "Bah! Get outta here you filthy flying rat!" Pigeon: "sigh I guess this puddle of oily water in the parking lot will have to do peck peck" Yeah that's pretty sad They're like an abandoned human creation. We made them and then abandoned them. That's like something out of a movie.

by carol67 11 months ago

Isn't that the plot of Frankenstein?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Don't they thrive in big cities though?

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Just because they're able to survive in large numbers doesn't mean they have a high quality of life

by Anonymous 11 months ago

How do you quantify a good life for a wild animal? Nature is brutal in general

by Anonymous 11 months ago

So ... we should eat them again?

by geobahringer 11 months ago

We didn't just eat them, used them for messages and as pets, they bred fancy pigeons. Better than being abandoned with no survival skills and starving.

by sauerraegan 11 months ago

Why would you straight up lie? You can easily Google it. Dogs were the first

by Anonymous 11 months ago

How are you so confidently incorrect? If you dont know about pigeons then just ask. It's not even mentioning pigeons at the animal part in your link lmfao I own pigeons and love them. They have been domesticated a very long time. More than most animals. But they were definitely not the very first

by Anonymous 11 months ago

What is even more wild to me, is the loss of their cousin, the passenger pigeon. Billions of birds, potentially the most common bird in Eastern North america, disappeared in a few decades due to market hunting and the loss of the American chestnut.

by Longjumping_Data141 11 months ago

Also, they were brought to the USA as a food source

by Anonymous 11 months ago

You have never seen a baby pigeon.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Rock doves. Lived in rocky areas... Still do.

by morissettedayna 11 months ago

Pigeons diet is seeds and veggies, not bugs and garbage. They don't eat bugs at all.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

They ate puzzi before we gave them the gift of our cuisine

by deven17 11 months ago

The difference between a pigeon and a dove is simply location.

by Anonymous 11 months ago

Wait until OP finds out what happened to passenger pigeons

by Anonymous 11 months ago