Racing Pigeon Performance (IMAGE)

SMBE Journals (Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution)

Racing Pigeon Performance

Caption

These are racing pigeons being released from Perpignan (France) to Belgium in 2011. In modern pigeon races, birds are transported to a common location in trucks similar to the one in the picture. After birds get released, they fly to their own lofts and are clocked by their owners. The average speed is used to rank the birds and it is a function of the time elapsed and distance to each individual loft. The winner of this race flew ~900 km at an average speed of 69 km/h.

Credit

PIPA

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