Pigeons Poop On Pollution

File this story in the "Some People Never Learn" category.

"Pigeons with mobile phones to monitor pollution."

"A flock of pigeons wearing mobile phone backpacks are to be used to monitor air pollution in California. About 20 pigeons will each carry a mobile phone with a GPS tracking chip and air pollution sensors, reports New Scientist. Data will be sent back via text messages to a so called pigeon 'blog' on air quality."

Aka the Daily Kos.

"And miniature cameras tied around the birds' necks will post aerial pictures of trouble spots. Beatriz da Costa, a researcher from the University of California at Irvine, and two of her students came up with the idea…"

Now I've discussed the coast to coast pigeon pollution problem before, 'specially an article from the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Out at the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District's Pacheco plant they've got pigeons. Pigeons for days. Pigeons on the roof, in the I-beams, in the gutters and all over the machinery. And where there are pigeons, there is pigeon poop. Tons of it…

"So [Chuck Batts, plant general manager] reached what might seem a logical solution -- pigeon-cide. Most of us would agree that it has a certain blunt logic. And so workers…were sent with pellet rifles about six or eight months ago to thin the ranks, Batts said. It was not a pretty sight.

"There were dead birds falling from the sky, wounded birds flopping on the ground and blood everywhere. The workers complained."

And goin' beyond the poop problem (or not), those green eggheads and hambones forgot a basic law of the wild. Pigeons, along with any other small animal, are smorgasbord on the wing for hawks—as New York City discovered when they hired a bunch of 'em to police Central Park.

"Unfortunately, there have been some problems with the raptors. Last year, one of the New York hawks mistook a Chihuahua for lunch. The dog's owner, not expecting the pet to be attacked from above by a flesh-eating bird of prey…was not happy. That's the problem, says [Bill Quarles, executive director of Biointegral Resource Center]. "You're sitting at a bench, eating your lunch and Whap!" he says. "Blood and feathers everywhere."

That'll take animal picture bloggin' to a new level.

posted by Harrison at 9:17 PM