Washington University grad releases study comparing pigeons in St. Louis, Madrid
ST. LOUIS - Pigeons are nearly four times more common in Madrid than in St. Louis, according to research from a former Washington University in St. Louis student.
Daisy Lewis, a WashU grad and former ecology and evolutionary biology major, studied pigeon populations in both cities and reported her findings in the Urban Naturalist journal.
Lewis said she counted every pigeon she saw while walking through St. Louis and Madrid, writing down the specific details of each location. She found that Madrid’s birds were especially present in areas where people ate outside. She believes that if St. Louis had more of an outdoor café culture or dining scene, there would probably be more pigeons too.
In both cities, pigeons were most commonly found in areas with lots of pedestrians. Lewis found it interesting to see that they preferred areas where people were actually walking, speculating that the pigeons may gather near crowds to avoid predators.
The study also says that here in St. Louis, pigeons tend to cluster up near train tracks because of grain spillage. They also gather near overpasses, rooftops, and powerlines. You may expect to see a fair bit of them in Forest Park, but Lewis says there don’t tend to be as many of them there because hawks, warblers, and thrushes dominate the area.
The study was co-authored by Elizabeth Carlen, a postdoctoral researcher with the Living Earth Collaborative (LEC), and Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences. The National Science Foundation and the LEC supported the work.
Carlen, who has been labeled in The New York Times as “The Pigeon Stalker,” said the birds found in U.S. cities are not indigenous to the area, and were brought here by early European colonizers for food and fertilizer. She says this means that they are technically feral, since they are wild descendants of domesticated ancestors.
While wild pigeons do naturally occur in Spain, the flocks that Lewis observed scrapping for food outside of shops are also descendants of birds who were once domesticated and not wild.
Despite their reputation as messy urban dwellers, Lewis said pigeons have an appeal, saying they can be charismatic and set a great example of resilience.
