The Messenger Pigeon
When learning about the history of technology, one thing that always interested me was the messenger pigeon. We use to rely on these birds to deliver very important messages, yet now we treat them like street trash. How could an animal that is portrayed to be stupid and worthless use to be a creature that was valued so much?
To first understand the evolution of the pigeon, we have to start with the history of how it became famous. Even though the use of the carrier pigeon had been used by many famous figures like ancient Romans, Genghis Khan, and Charlemagne, it wasn't until the Siege of Paris in 1870 that the carrier pigeon truly became known and cherished.
After the success of the carrier pigeons in 1870, Europe continued to use the carrier pigeons in World War 1 in 1914. In addition, the French believed that pigeons were so important that at the end of the war, France had sent off 30,000 pigeons and had declared that if anyone interferes with the flight of their pigeons, that you could be sentenced to death.
Even though now carrier pigeons are not popular anymore, especially with how technology has now advanced, there are still certain scenarios where people and certain countries use carrier pigeons. For instance, drug traffickers get away with not getting caught selling drugs by not using technology that can be traced and instead send flocks of pigeons that carry about ten grams of heroin between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In addition, pigeons are still used to carry blood samples from certain faraway regions of Britain and France. They are also used in the United States to spot shipwrecks from helicopters, and they do this because of their 360-degree vision.
Even though pigeons use to be necessary to send messages now, it is said that they are necessary for biodiversity. It is interesting to see how there is so much history behind a bird I see every day in New York City.
