"Why do you never see a baby pigeon?"
I was sitting outside a café with a friend last week when she asked me. I had no answer for her.
For some reason (you might like to analyse this), I feel a need to be able to answer this sort of question. "Maybe", I mused, "they have nesting grounds like turtles, where they flock off to hatch their young, which do not return until fully grown". Unfortunately, after several years in London I have not been aware of a breeding season in which half the pigeons in the city disappear. I live in hope.
"Or", I suggested, "maybe they just grow up very quickly". Like battery-farmed chickens, their freakish diet of chemical-laden fast food and cigarette ends may lead them to develop to full size very quickly.
Another possibility is that baby pigeons remain in their nest, while their parents bring them little chunks of doner meat and the remains of fried chicken meals. But it seems unlikely that nests would be big enough to hold a full compliment of pigeon progeny.
Later that day, I thought "perhaps pigeons don't age at all, and there is a single stock of pigeons that have been around since the dawn of time". But I soon realised that this theory fails to account for replacement of pigeons that, in a characteristic display of stupidity, fly into walls, buses or people.
Only slightly more credible is the idea that all the pigeons we see are in fact baby pigeons. When fully grown, they have a wingspan in the region of two metres and have the sense to go and live somewhere warm with an abundance of clean food.
Unable to rest until I found the answer (and having a little time on my hands), I decided to find an expert. Normally, I wouldn't trust a man who described himself as a pigeon fancier, but an acquaintance's aunt's ex-husband's daughter put me in touch with Geoffrey so I felt I was on safe ground.
Geoffrey informed me that pigeons simply stay in their nests (which they keep out of the way of curious Londoners) until they are fully grown, which doesn't take them very long. And they usually only have two eggs so nest space isn't an issue.
Not a very exciting answer, but at least you don't have to wonder any more.
I was sitting outside a café with a friend last week when she asked me. I had no answer for her.
For some reason (you might like to analyse this), I feel a need to be able to answer this sort of question. "Maybe", I mused, "they have nesting grounds like turtles, where they flock off to hatch their young, which do not return until fully grown". Unfortunately, after several years in London I have not been aware of a breeding season in which half the pigeons in the city disappear. I live in hope.
"Or", I suggested, "maybe they just grow up very quickly". Like battery-farmed chickens, their freakish diet of chemical-laden fast food and cigarette ends may lead them to develop to full size very quickly.
Another possibility is that baby pigeons remain in their nest, while their parents bring them little chunks of doner meat and the remains of fried chicken meals. But it seems unlikely that nests would be big enough to hold a full compliment of pigeon progeny.
Later that day, I thought "perhaps pigeons don't age at all, and there is a single stock of pigeons that have been around since the dawn of time". But I soon realised that this theory fails to account for replacement of pigeons that, in a characteristic display of stupidity, fly into walls, buses or people.
Only slightly more credible is the idea that all the pigeons we see are in fact baby pigeons. When fully grown, they have a wingspan in the region of two metres and have the sense to go and live somewhere warm with an abundance of clean food.
Unable to rest until I found the answer (and having a little time on my hands), I decided to find an expert. Normally, I wouldn't trust a man who described himself as a pigeon fancier, but an acquaintance's aunt's ex-husband's daughter put me in touch with Geoffrey so I felt I was on safe ground.
Geoffrey informed me that pigeons simply stay in their nests (which they keep out of the way of curious Londoners) until they are fully grown, which doesn't take them very long. And they usually only have two eggs so nest space isn't an issue.
Not a very exciting answer, but at least you don't have to wonder any more.
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