Before the discovery of radio communication, the most efficient, reliable and fast way of transmitting messages was pigeon mail. The maximum speed of a carrier pigeon is 80-100, and the average is about 40-60 kilometers per hour. The maximum distance (in summer, in ideal weather) is 1000-1200 kilometers. At short distances, the probability of death of birds on the way is too high, even if they are released in three, like counter-rubs. Although there are cases when pigeons managed to return home from a distance of two, three and even five and a half thousand kilometers.

The main feature of pigeon mail is worth emphasizing. The pigeon, being released, immediately returns to its usual dovecote, from where it was taken away in a basket or cage. You can't send a pigeon anywhere else. In George Martin's fantasy cycle A Song of Ice and Fire, scientists ravens deliver letters to any location on the map. But in reality, a pigeon can only "know" one address.

When flying over long distances, the pigeon is forced to land for "refueling", so the rate of movement is sharply reduced. At night, these birds are helpless. Usually pigeons do not rise above 100-150 meters and “creep” along the valleys. They do not like to fly over water for a long time - although they sometimes guess to cross the sea on the mast of a passing steamer.

How doves find their way has long been a mystery. Like many animals, they are sensitive to magnetic fields, but a compass will not help if you do not know their position relative to the target. The real "secret" of the dove is in the extremely accurate "internal clock" that allows it to accurately determine latitude and longitude from the position of the Sun.

The "date of birth" of pigeon mail is lost in the mists of time. Perhaps, for the first time this type of communication began to be used back in Mesopotamia in the 2-3 millennia BC. It is definitely known that in ancient Greece, "winged messengers" were widely used.

The Greeks used pigeons mainly "for peaceful purposes." But the Romans back in 43 BC. e. during the siege of Mutins, military messages were also transmitted with their help. A regular state pigeon mail was organized by the Arabs in the 12th century.

For a long time, the use of carrier pigeons was limited by their high cost. Pigeons, which for thousands of years were bred for meat all over the world, like our city "sisari", could fly only from roof to roof. For long-distance communication it was required to create a new breed. In the 12-13th centuries, a special carrier pigeon cost the same as an Arabian horse.

Pigeon mail is considered by many to be an outdated fashion. In vain. The unique instinct of pigeons, in science called "homing", made these birds indispensable for humans in ancient times, and light memory cards turned them into the most effective postmen.

Origins

Domestic pigeons evolved from the wild rock (rock) pigeon that still lives in southern Europe, North Africa and South Asia, nests on rocks and high steep banks. One of the earliest messages about pigeon mail can be found in the Old Testament. Noah releases a dove from the ark and awaits its return. And the dove does indeed return with an olive branch in its beak - a sign that the earth has become habitable again.

Pigeon mail was known in Ancient China, Greece, Egypt. The Roman historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder described how the commandant of the besieged Mutina Decius Brutus in 43 BC managed to notify the consul Girtius of the attack on the city, and he arrived in time with troops to rescue. During the Gallic War, Caesar exchanged messages with his supporters in Rome using carrier pigeons.

Price information

As we can see, a special impetus to the development of pigeon mail was given by military operations, which, without stopping, have been going on on earth since ancient times. War is a time when the fate of cities, armies, and even entire nations depends on accurate and timely information. The Egyptian Sultan Nur ad-Din paid 1000 denarii for a pair of good carrier pigeons. He is also considered the creator of the first official postal service - a network of "pigeon towers" throughout Syria and Egypt. The efforts of the sultan bore fruit: the news of the sudden seizure of the port of Damietta by the army of the French king Louis Saint in 1249 was conveyed to the Egyptian sultan Najm ad-Din also with the help of pigeons. This allowed the Muslims to quickly counterattack and defeat the Crusader King.

But pigeons helped not only to win wars. The famous merchant Nathan Rothschild owes his huge fortune to pigeons. During the Napoleonic wars, he sent his agents after the French army, whom he supplied with trained carrier pigeons. While Napoleon was gaining victories, English securities fell sharply in value. But after the defeat of the Napoleonic army at Waterloo, the value of these securities rose sharply. Thanks to the pigeon mail, Rothschild learned about this earlier than other merchants and bought the paper at a low price.

Pigeon postal lines

No post can be official without its main attribute - a postage stamp. The birthplace of the first stamp for pigeon mail is considered to be Great Barrier Island off the coast of New Zealand. Communication with the islands was difficult, it was still impossible to conduct a telegraph there, radio communication did not exist at that time. Only the birds remained, and in 1890 the idea arose to use pigeons for communication. The birds did the job so efficiently that in 1896, official and regular mail lines opened between Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, and the Barrier Reef Islands.

"Haming"

What makes the pigeons fly home, despite all the obstacles? In the scientific literature, this ability is called "homing" - the instinct to return home. Even today, scientists cannot fully explain the mechanism that allows pigeons to accurately determine the direction of flight, from many cities to find the right one, from thousands of similar houses to determine one and from hundreds of windows to find their own. The pigeon's brain is developed to such an extent that it can be called a natural computer.

This computer is capable of processing and storing huge amounts of information. Pigeons collect it using all their senses. Most of the volume of his skull is occupied by the eyes. They are designed in such a way that they remember only the necessary information, cutting off all unnecessary ones. Pigeons have very keen eyesight combined with an excellent memory. This allows them to form a route based on visual impressions.

In addition, nature has endowed pigeons with a special "inner magnet". It is located at the base of the beak and is called the "magnetic receptor system". With its help, the newly hatched chick determines and remembers the level of magnetic tension near its nest. And he will never forget this information.

In addition to the magnetic "navigator", the pigeon also has an infrasonic "sensor" that allows it to pick up vibrations below 10 hertz! In this way, pigeons learn about impending storms, changes in weather and the direction of the wind. Modern researchers also suggest that pigeons are capable of smelling (although most birds have a rather weak sense of smell).

And finally, over the long years of life side by side with man, birds have learned to use his roads. Since ancient Roman times, carrier pigeons in Italy have flown from Rome to the north and back along the Via Aurelia, an old coastal route that connected the Eternal City with Gaul (present-day France) in 241 BC. Italian scientists have found that modern birds also follow this route. The ancient road has become a landmark for thousands of generations of carrier pigeons. How they pass this information on to their descendants is still a mystery.

Training

But don't expect the pigeon to obediently deliver your messages from the moment it gets on the wing. Sometimes training is quite time consuming. And of course, among the pigeons there are more responsible and capable of postal work, and there are also lazy people - all like people!

As soon as the chicks begin to fly confidently enough, that is, approximately in the third week of their life, they are released into free flight, accompanied by an experienced leader. This will ensure they get home. From the many chicks flying around the nest, an experienced pigeon breeder must choose a few of the most quick-witted, best oriented on the terrain. He will train them further, individually.

The selected pigeons are gradually taken away from the house and released. In the first year, pigeons are not trained over a distance of 320 kilometers. The first flights also need good weather. In order not to discourage the birds from returning, the pigeon house must catch them very carefully. And finally, it is always more pleasant to return to where they are waiting for you. Therefore, it is important for carrier pigeons to choose a spouse. Otherwise, they can find themselves a mate in another place and abandon their native nest. But the pigeons “steamed”, as the pigeons say, that is, they find a partner, once and for life! Indeed, marriages that are made in heaven.

Pigeon mail today

There are many reliable and fast means of communication these days: the Internet, mobile networks, telephone lines, airmail, after all. Is there a place for the carrier pigeon left in our lives now?

For many people, pigeon mail is a tradition, which they want and do not see the need to part with. One of these traditions has existed since antiquity. The ancient Greeks announced the victories of the Olympians by sending carrier pigeons to large cities. In 1996, following the ancient example of the Greeks, Slovakia sent out its “dovegrams” in honor of the Atlanta Olympics. They were provided with commemorative stamps. In the homeland of pigeon mail, New Zealand, pigeons fly annually along the well-trodden route between Auckland and the Barrier Reef Islands.

In addition, there are sports competitions, the so-called "olympiads" of pigeons. A sports carrier pigeon is a bundle of muscles enclosed in a perfect, streamlined body. He differs from his usual bluish counterpart, as a professional athlete from an ordinary fan. Every year the International Union of Pigeon Mail organizes special bird competitions.

Faster, cheaper, more efficient

But all this does not mean at all that pigeon mail has lost its practical purpose. In some conditions, pigeons can be much more reliable than a telephone cable, which can be cut. For example, in the 20th century, during the First and Second World Wars, they were successfully used by both the military and journalists. Pigeons were especially effective at short distances, to transmit urgent news or dispatches.

In a peaceful life, pigeons will also give odds even to airmail. At the end of the 20th century, an experiment was conducted in the Baltic States: who will deliver the letter to the addressee faster - an airplane, ground mail or a pigeon? To the surprise of the researchers, the pigeon was the first to cope with the task, ahead of all modern means of communication. Currently, pigeon mail has been preserved in Switzerland and Cuba, but pigeons are used for practical purposes in other countries as well. In Holland, pigeons still save lives - they deliver test tubes with donated blood to hospitals. It turned out to be faster and cheaper than delivery by car. In Belgium, pigeons carry classified information on special chips - tiny in size, but capable of accommodating the entire text of the Bible!

The emergence of modern information carriers will not shorten, but, on the contrary, prolong the life of pigeon mail. Chips and memory cards weigh much less than the previous notes, and they hold much more information. It is not always safe to transmit it via the Internet, and the pigeon can quickly deliver it to the addressee. Unlike a courier, you can always rely on him: he is not subject to so-called "human factors", he will not be bribed by competitors. The main thing is to feed it properly, and you will have your own small supercomputer, created by nature and polished by man.

Kira Stoletova

Nowadays, pigeons are associated with beauty and are valued for their appearance. But not so long ago, people used them to convey information to each other. Can you imagine something more romantic than receiving a letter sent with a winged one? The article just talks about what pigeon mail is and how it works.

Story

The Old Testament testifies that pigeon mail existed even then. It was the dove that was released by Noah, and he was sure of his return. Later, this method of transmitting information spread to countries such as China and Greece. And in 1167, the first state pigeon post appeared in Egypt, for which it was ordered to build many special towers. The information was transmitted only in this way. The first breeds of carrier pigeons were Bagdets, Skanderuns and Quarries.

If we talk about the appearance of such a means of communication in Russia, then the beginning was laid by wars. Princess Olga, wishing to avenge her husband's death, took tribute from the Drevlyans with doves and sparrows. The opponents gladly agreed, and she ordered to tie dry branches to the paws of birds and set them on fire. Knowing that every pigeon would return home, she was able to destroy an entire settlement of enemies.

More romantic information about the first love letters from monasteries to their beloved still inspires refined natures to such actions.

Later, with the help of pigeon mail, they established communication between states. There was no other means of communication over long distances.

Operating principle

So how does pigeon mail work?

The pigeon has an instinct to return home, in addition, the birds are very hardy and can fly hundreds of kilometers. The maximum flight speed is 70 km / h. The birds are also perfectly oriented on the terrain and easily find their way back to the nest.

Facts indicate that birds have:

• keen vision;
• phenomenal memory, with the help of which the bird remembers the route based on visual perception.

Only certain breeds are used to convey information. It is easy to distinguish them from others by their size (they are larger than their counterparts) and a massive beak. The peculiarities of the appearance of the post office are clearly visible in the photo. A carrier pigeon must be trainable, tough and able to fly quickly.

Postal birds are capable of flying about 1100 km. Among the many breeds, the German, Russian, Belgian and Hungarian are distinguished. Any of them is capable of working in a pigeon mail until 20 years old.

How is it going? The note is sealed in a capsule and attached to the bird's leg. Watching for predators such as the hawk, two pigeons are often sent at once with similar messages.

This form of communication existed even before the advent of the telephone and the Internet, but pigeon mail continues to be used today.

Training

It is important to understand that not every pigeon is capable of this. Yes, birds are also all different: there are capable and not so, fast and lazy.

As soon as the chick learns to fly by the third week of life, its training begins immediately. The first days of the winged are allowed to fly only under the supervision of an experienced adult male, who returns home without any problems. At first, training takes place at a close distance from the habitat.

Feeding immediately after the flight can stimulate the subsequent return home. You also need to solve the problem with the selection of a partner, otherwise there is a risk that the bird will choose itself and fly away to him.

The British distinguished themselves with an original idea: to transmit notes with the help of birds during traffic jams.

In general, no matter how much progress the modern world has reached, every woman in her soul will desire beautiful romantic deeds and exquisite gestures of attention. Delivering a love message in such an ancient and original way is one of the most effective ways to win the heart of your beloved.

Pigeons have a bad reputation today. Many perceive them as stupid birds that shit on the streets and spread disease. Some call them "winged rats." Although there is no basis for such an attitude, especially since pigeons are incredibly smart creatures.

Ordinary urban pigeons are well-versed in space and will always find their way home. Firstly, pigeons remember the features of the landscape on their way; secondly, they remember smells; thirdly, they have a "built-in compass" with which they orient themselves according to the sun. If one of these traits fails, the bird cannot find its way home. Banal artificial street lighting can prevent the pigeon from returning home.

Researchers at the University of Oxford, as part of the experiment, equipped the birds with a GPS navigation system to track their route during flight. During their journey, the two pigeons had the choice of returning home individually or in pairs. The birds found a compromise and chose something in between - they went along a common route, close to their separate routes leading home. The fact is that pigeons are able to obey the leader and follow him, but if the routes of the pigeons are completely different or directed in different directions, then a compromise is not possible. It should be noted that pigeons in a flock overcome the route much more efficiently than alone.

Another interesting fact was encountered by researchers several years ago, when they realized that pigeons can distinguish the faces of people. During the experiment, two researchers, approximately the same in build and type, treated pigeons differently: one was kind, and the other chased them around the cage during feeding. After a certain time, the researchers stopped appearing in front of the pigeons, but when they reappeared, the birds recognized them and began to avoid the one who behaved aggressively in the past, despite the fact that he stood at attention.

Among the little-known facts about pigeons, the ability of birds to remember certain information for a long time should be highlighted. Another experiment, carried out at the Mediterranean Institute of Cognitive Neurology, was aimed at measuring the memory properties of pigeons compared to baboons. Pigeons and baboons were often shown the picture and color, and the animals had to remember the associations. The pigeons managed to memorize between 800 and 1200 associations. Although they lost in the competition to the baboons, this is a good result.

In recent years, research has shown that pigeons are familiar with abstract mathematics. They tend to calculate their behavior, which was previously considered the prerogative of only primates. During the experiment, three sets of objects were shown to three pigeons on a screen. One set had one item, the second had two, and the third had three. All objects varied in color, shape and size. Pigeons were taught to peck on the screen, first a set with one object, then with two, and later with three. When they did exactly what they were asked to do without error, the pigeons were shown sets containing one to nine items, respectively. As a result, the pigeons were able to distinguish sets with one, two and three objects, although they were not taught that there can be more than three objects. This experiment showed that pigeons are able to understand the nature of numbers and that causality is not alien to them.

Many facts about the role of pigeons in human history are missing from textbooks. But everyone is well aware that people have used pigeon mail since time immemorial. Therefore, during the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, the defenders of the city used this talent of pigeons to transmit messages, which was faster than the telegraph. For obvious reasons, less than 10% of the birds survived the First World War. Many of the survivors were awarded the Maria Deakin medals for their invaluable services.

4. Pigeons have superstitious behavior.

In 1947, Skinner published the results of an experiment in which small pigeons were placed in a cage. They were fed regularly at regular intervals. Over time, 6 out of 8 pigeons showed interesting behavior. One of the birds regularly repeated the same movement - stuck its head into the corner of the cage, the other continuously moved around the cage in a circle. The fact is that the birds decided that they were feeding them only because of their strange behavior.

3. Relatives of the Dodo bird

DNA analysis of pigeons showed similarities with the extinct dodo bird. A relative of the modern pigeon is the multi-colored Nicobar pigeon, which lives in Southeast Asia and the Nicobar Islands. Prior to this scientific discovery, it was difficult to determine which family the extinct dodo bird belonged to, since it had unique external physical features.

2. Pigeons can be of different colors

It seems to many that pigeons are mostly medium-sized, dark gray in color and live on the streets of the city. Most of them, yes, but this is only one kind. Pigeons live all over the world and many of them look very beautiful. For example, there are fruit pigeons that surprise with their vibrant greens, reds and yellows.

1. Pigeons are several thousand years old

Pigeons can be called human companions. The first documentary mention of them appeared more than 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia. In Egypt, the remains of pigeons were found in ancient human burials. There have been cases in history when people treated pigeons as sacred birds. They were worshiped, they were exalted. Despite the fact that some species of pigeons have disappeared and became rare, they coexist with people for thousands of years.

In the world of computers and the Internet, a dove with a letter seems somehow from fairy tales or history. But several decades ago, serious hopes were pinned on him, and he justified them. During wartime, birds helped people deliver messages. And if you go deeper into ancient times, then pigeon mail was used as early as 45 BC. In Egypt in the XII century, this method of communication reached the state scale. Today these birds continue to be trained, but this is already a sporting interest.

Historical facts

Most often, flights of a carrier pigeon were limited to delivering messages during hostilities. And they, in turn, happened at all times. A lot depended on the speed of delivered messages - the fate of people, cities and countries.

For example, in 1249, the news of the seizure of the port, delivered by a carrier pigeon, helped Egypt to win the battle with the army of the French king. History also informs about such a fact as the contribution of carrier pigeons to improving welfare. This is the case when the birds delivered a message to the merchant Rothschild in time that the securities had fallen in value. Everything happened during the Napoleonic battles.

Homing pigeons were actively used in the years 1870-71. This was the time of the Franco-Prussian War. When Paris was under siege, the city of Tours prepared mail, which was sent by air with the help of birds. They covered 220 km in about 4 hours, but since the text had to be encoded and decoded, it took all day. Such a result in terms of speed was considered and is considered very good.

And in not very distant 1929 in the city of Kharkov, an interesting building of the post office was built, where you can still see special pigeon enclosures to this day. This means that postman birds had a significant place and were popular in their business. At the time, such a connection worked and was quite promising.

Message stations

In Europe in the XIX-XX centuries, special pigeon stations were organized. It is not difficult to understand how the carrier pigeons know where to fly. If the bird is simply released from the nest, then, naturally, it will not find the addressee. But these birds perfectly remember the place where their own house or dovecote is located.

Now the principle of operation of the pigeon post station becomes clear. There were kept their own pigeons and those that were brought from other stations. At the right time they were sent to their "homeland" with a letter. Periodically, local birds were taken to other points, from where they had to return to their native "nest" with a message.

This happened exactly this way, because the birds are perfectly oriented and remember the area where the dovecote is located. They will certainly return home.

There is a version that pigeons can use the roads. Even in Ancient Rome, there was a route from Italy to Gaul, which was followed by birds from pigeon mail. The current generation still flies in this way, although it is not known how this information was transmitted by inheritance.

Knowing the principle of operation of the stations, it becomes clear how carrier pigeons find their way to the addressee, because the “addressee” is their home, from where people take them away by various means of transport, including balloons.

Letters with classified information

When pigeon mail was actively used by humans, the letters were encoded. Information in the form of text was placed on a narrow strip of paper. If hostilities were going on, encryption was a prerequisite. The content of such a message should not have been read by the enemy side if a pigeon got there. The recipient had to decode the message.

The letter was folded and put into a special metal tube, which was attached to a pigeon's leg. In Russia, they used the hollow part of the pen, where the message was placed. It was attached to the tail feathers.

If we return to the events of the Franco-Prussian war, then with the help of carrier pigeons, both official messages and personal ones were transmitted. The total number of letters is over 1 million in the 140 days of the siege of Paris. 73 postman birds coped with these tasks. They were delivered to the city of Tour by means of balloons.

Any means of transmitting letters have their own hindrances, and in this case, the Germans wanted to get the information that was transmitted through the pigeons. In this regard, hawks were launched, which were supposed to catch air postmen, but it was unrealistic to cope with such a task, and the birds with letters still flew to the addressees.

Aerial orientation

After takeoff, the speed of carrier pigeons can reach 100 km / h, and the average is 80 km / h. They have a good ability to navigate in space.... Birds are able to return to their nest, even if it is 1000 km away. Of course they are educated and trained. Thanks to this, the pochari become more resilient and capable of being in flight for 12 hours in a row.

Pigeons can climb up to 400 m. The flight takes place in the daytime, and they rest at night.

The principle of how pigeons find their way home is still not fully understood, but science uses a term like homing. This means that there is an instinct to return to their native land. However, it is not entirely clear how birds can determine where to fly, how they are able to find the right house when there are many identical buildings around.

There is evidence that pigeon brains are much more developed than meets the eye. The bird is oriented due to the fact that it remembers the route, removing all unnecessary information. This is due to keen eyesight and the use of all senses.

It should be said that pigeons have a special magnetic receptor system in the beak area. It helps the hatched chicks remember the level of magnetic tension at their nest. This will forever remain in the memory. There is also one more ability to pick up vibrations below 10 Hz. This means that birds are aware of all weather changes.

Types of air mailmen

Among all the breeds of pigeons, there is no particular postage breed. Trained birds are considered to be those with good flying qualities. In general, the physique of birds should be harmonious, strong, with well-developed muscles. The plumage is dense, such that it allows the development of good aerodynamic properties. At the same time, the tail is long and narrow, and the legs are unfeathered. Color doesn't matter much. Stamina, airspeed and homing are important.

We talk about this in detail in the article. And now we will single out only a few breeds that are able to learn postage:

• English pigeons are very fast and have been used as postmen for several centuries;
• Belgian ones are no less popular, but they can differ in physique from English in a more rounded body shape;
• German are also quite fast and are descendants of English and Dutch pigeons;
• Russian postal pigeons are considered the chosen ones and win prizes in competitions;
• Czech birds show themselves well at short distances.

Considering that in the modern world letters can be delivered in completely different ways, then carrier pigeons are most often used for competitions. At the same time, the flight speed, time and ability to find the final point of the route are assessed.

Development of abilities

Although carrier pigeons have this name, without some training they do not deliver messages. Birds learn very simply, but among them there may be both responsible individuals and lazy ones.

When the chick has learned to fly and confidently stay in the air, then it is released into the sky, but accompanied by an experienced adult bird, which will teach you how to return home. In this case, the trainer must determine the young individuals who are the most intelligent. This is done when the birds flutter near their native nest. Further, they are dealt with individually.

There is another idea that experienced pigeon breeders use. For the bird to return home, it needs a pair. This species of birds is considered to be family, monogamous and very kind to the partner. So, if you take one family member out of the dovecote, he will definitely return to the one who is waiting.

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