Homing Pigeons

What I Learned?

Although I had heard about Homing Pigeons, I never realized how wide spread they were actually used. When I imagined Homing Pigeons, I thought of medieval times and kings sending out messages to their knights. I recently learned however that they were still in use in some places up until 2006 when the final pigeon service was disbanded. I found it interesting that these pigeons were used as early as 3000 BCE in Ancient Egypt as well as Ancient Persia, Greece, and Rome. Their impact was so immense in ancient times that they were even featured in religious texts such as the Bible, specifically during Noah's Ark. In 2009, South Africa hosted an experiment to see what could send messages and data faster: Homing Pigeons or their Internet service. The experiment concluded with Homing Pigeons being the faster traveler at the time with a speed of one hour and eight minutes.

War Pigeons

I was surprised to learn that Homing Pigeons were used as late as World War 1 and 2 for private messages. During World War 1, pigeons were used extensively to communicate and the United States, by themselves, used around 600 of them. There was a particular pigeon, known as Cher Ami, who was shot through the leg but still managed to get its message to its destination. That final message ended up saving around 194 people in the 77th division. During World War II, The United Kingdom had at least 200,000 war pigeons and 32 of them were awarded the Dicken Medal. Project Pigeon was started in World War II by the Americans as an attempt to create pigeon guided bombs. Project Pigeon was cancelled and eventually revived by the Navy until it was eventually proved inefficient by electronic guidance systems.