What animal did Lockheed Aircraft Company use to send messages between facilities across Los Angeles in order to avoid traffic? The pigeon - Isn't it amazing that an aircraft company would use this natural form of airmail!

What animal has helped save so many people that you might not exist had one of your ancestors not been saved by one of them? Throughout history, pigeons have been used to carry lifesaving messages, and even medications, very quickly, over impassable terrain, with a better than 98% success rate - and still do so in some parts of the world, today.

What bird is falsely accused of spreading many diseases to people? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the risk of getting a disease from a pigeon anywhere in the USA is extremely rare.

What animal was used in Desert Storm to send messages that otherwise would not have gotten through due to intense radio jamming? The pigeon! In a world of high technology, sometimes the lowest technology is still the most successful.

What animals are encouraged to provide a fertilizer of choice for famous brands of champagne? The next time you tip a glass of fine champagne, enjoy a bit of the essence of pigeon.

What birds feed milk to their babies? Pigeons make "crop milk" to feed their babies. Scientists studied this to help make cows' milk better for people.

What winged creature can think abstractly, form concepts, and commit images to memory many times faster than human beings? Laboratory pigeons conceptualize at a high level of abstraction.  Each pigeon concept that was assessed in the laboratory was surprisingly as general and complete as typical concepts of humans.  Laboratory pigeons also succeed at other tasks that were thought to be unique to humans or to primates.  Laboratory pigeons learned to recognize each of the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet.  It seemed odd to the researchers that the birds made the same kinds of initial mistakes as elementary school students. 


My thanks to Dave Roth of Arizona Urban Wildlife Society for permission to use these extracts from "GEE WHIZ ANIMAL QUIZ"  (© D.L. Roth, 25 August, 1997)