5,000 Animals Unaccounted for on One of 'Very Worst' Days in Racing Sport's History
Thousands of birds are unaccounted for in what is being called the worst disaster in the history of pigeon racing — which, little-known as it may be, is very much a thing.
While modern technology has largely rendered the use of carrier birds obsolete, these remarkable creatures are still being raised, trained and raced by enthusiasts.
Now, however, this niche group is devastated by the disappearance of over 5,000 birds who never returned home amid a race in eastern England last weekend.
Interestingly, the pigeons might have lost their ability to find their way home due to unusual solar weather. If you’d been planning on using homing pigeons to communicate in the event a solar flare wipes out the power grid, you might want to consider some alternatives.
While it is speculated that a solar storm may have distorted the magnetic field and caused the birds to lose their navigational prowess, experts are still scratching their heads over the Bermuda Triangle-esque mystery, the New York Post reported.
The 170-mile round-trip flight should have taken just three hours for the pigeons to complete, but as of Thursday night, over half the birds who had participated in the race were still unaccounted for.
Pigeon enthusiast Richard Sayers wrote on Facebook to his “non pigeon friends who I bore to death with the birds most weekends” that the homing pigeon community had seen “one of the very worst ever racing days in our history.”
He wrote that there were “thousands of racing pigeons that are tired and lost” thanks to the “static atmospheric conditions.”
Meanwhile, Ian Evans, CEO of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, is baffled. According to the Post, he said the “weather conditions across the country were good” when 9,000 birds took off from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
Evans said there had been “nothing to suggest that any birds would struggle to get home” and that he’d “never heard of anything like this.”
Sayers anticipated the birds would turn up, writing in his Facebook post that there’s a “chance someone reading this will have one land in their garden or work place.”
If this happens, he suggested putting out water and seed or rice for the pigeon “to help it on its way.” He noted the competitors could be recognized by the rings around their feet.
Sayers seemed confident the pigeons would make it home. “There’s an 80 percent chance the birds will get on their way after a few days,” he said, according to the Post.
“We needed our little birds help in the major conflicts and they saved 1000s of lives,” Sayers wrote on Facebook, likely a reference to the important work homing pigeons did carrying messages during the world wars.
As The New York Times has profiled, birds were even used by the likes of Genghis Khan, Charlemagne and Noah.
One particularly heroic pigeon, Cher Ami, saved the lives of the 77th Infantry Division’s “lost battalion” during World War I by delivering 12 messages and returning to his roost despite being shot in the leg. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre by France.
Sadly, Cher Ami died in 1919 as a result of his injuries — but not before executing his avian duties brilliantly.
We certainly hope the missing homing pigeons manage to find their way back home as well, as these creatures and their amazing skills are a testament to the wonders of God’s creation.
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