Protecting buildings against feral pigeons

Feral pigeons (Columba livia, Gmelin 1789) cause different problems for building owners when using structures for daytime perching, sleeping, and breeding. Problems include fouling of building facades and pavements, transmission of allergens and pathogenic microorganisms, and infestations with ectoparasites emanating from breeding sites. Owners are primarily interested in keeping away unwanted pigeons from their property. Pest control companies offer different deterrent systems, of widely varying efficacy, for proofing buildings against feral pigeons. A better solution is avoiding attractive structures during building design or subsequent alterations of existing structures used by feral pigeons. With our study, we elaborate the relevant structural data to help to maintain a building free of pigeons. We performed experiments with free ranging feral pigeons in a feral pigeon loft in the City of Basel, Switzerland. The maximum outlet width a pigeon is not able to pass through is 4cm; the respective outlet height is 5cm and a pigeon-safe square opening is not larger than 6 × 6cm. The maximum ledge width a pigeon is not able to sit on is 4cm. The pigeon-safe angle of inclination for smooth construction materials (tinplate, glass, plastics) is 25°, for medium rough materials (wood, plane concrete) 35°, and for rough materials (sandstone, rough concrete) at least 50°. Additionally, we studied the behavioral strategies used by feral pigeons to surmount our experimental constructional restrictions, ledge width, and ledge inclinations. Our data provide the essential data to prevent feral pigeons from using building structure

Evaluation of an odor repellent for protecting crops from wild boar damage

Wild boar populations have dramatically increased in the past decades and the species has spread all over Europe. As the wild boar expanded its activity range into agricultural land, conflicts with humans have intensified. Today, the damage caused by wild boar amounts to millions of dollars every year. In Switzerland, farmers usually protect fields with electric fences, which have proven to be effective in preventing damage, but are also expensive. Alternatively, various cheaper deterrents and repellents are commercially available. However, most of them lack scientific proof of efficacy. In the present study, we investigated the effectiveness of the odor repellent "Wildschwein-Stopp®” against wild boar. We conducted field experiments with free-ranging wild boars at baited luring sites, which were placed in three different regions of the Canton Basel-Land, Northwest Switzerland. The odor repellent was not able to prevent the wild boars from entering our luring sites. We recorded a minimal and non-significant deterrent effect of 0.4%. Our results lead to the conclusion that the repellent is ineffective and, therefore, not recommendable for crop protection. On the basis of the present study we generally doubt fear-inducing repellents to be effective against wild boars and feral pigs. Our findings may indicate seasonal variation in wild boar activity outside forests since the probability of wild boar visits at the luring sites differed according to the season. The visits at the luring sites peaked in spring and fall which coincides with the occurrence of damage to agricultural lan

Spatio-temporal use of the urban habitat by feral pigeons (Columba livia )

Feral pigeons are descendants of wild rock pigeons that have adapted to the urban habitat. They have partially conserved the foraging behaviour of their wild ancestors (flights to agricultural areas) but have also developed new habits. Previous studies on the foraging strategies of feral pigeons have given various results, e.g. maximum distances reached by the pigeons (measured in a straight line from the resting places) differed between 0.3-0.5km and 18-25km. This study focuses on the spatio-temporal activity of feral pigeons in the urban habitat. We equipped 80 free-living feral pigeons from Basel, Switzerland with GPS receivers. We found three different foraging strategies for pigeons in Basel: (1) in the streets, squares and parks near the home loft, (2) in agricultural areas surrounding the city, (3) on docks and railway lines in harbours. The maximum distance reached by a pigeon was 5.29km. More than 32% of the pigeons remained within 0.3km of the home lofts and only 7.5% flew distances of more than 2km. Females covered significantly longer distances than males, preferring to fly to more abundant and predictable food sources. Temporal activity patterns showed to be influenced by sex, breeding state and season. In contrast to wild rock pigeons and to feral pigeons in other cities, pigeons in Basel showed a clear bimodal activity pattern for breeding birds only. The differences between our results and those of other studies seem to be partly method-dependent, as the GPS-technique allows to record the pigeons' localisations continuously in contrast to other methods. Other differences might be due to different kinds of food supply in the various cities. Our study shows that feral pigeons have individual foraging strategies and are flexible enough to adapt to different urban environment

Education can improve the negative perception of a threatened long-lived scavenging bird, the Andean condor

Human-wildlife conflicts currently represent one of the main conservation problems for wildlife species around the world. Vultures have serious conservation concerns, many of which are related to people's adverse perception about them due to the belief that they prey on livestock. Our aim was to assess local perception and the factors influencing people's perception of the largest scavenging bird in South America, the Andean condor. For this, we interviewed 112 people from Valle Fértil, San Juan province, a rural area of central west Argentina. Overall, people in the area mostly have an elementary education, and their most important activity is livestock rearing. The results showed that, in general, most people perceive the Andean condor as an injurious species and, in fact, some people recognize that they still kill condors. We identified two major factors that affect this perception, the education level of villagers and their relationship with livestock ranching. Our study suggests that conservation of condors and other similar scavengers depends on education programs designed to change the negative perception people have about them. Such programs should be particularly focused on ranchers since they are the ones who have the worst perception of these scavengers. We suggest that highlighting the central ecological role of scavengers and recovering their cultural value would be fundamental to reverse their persecution and their negative perception by people.Fil: Cailly Arnulphi, Verónica Beatríz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Lambertucci, Sergio Agustin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Borghi, Carlos Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; Argentin

Ectoparasites from feral pigeons affecting humans

Feral pigeons pose a considerable health risk to the human population. They are vectors of infectious diseases and source of antigens causing allergic diseases. Breeding and roosting sites of pigeons harbor parasites that may infest humans. In the present article, a concomitant parasitization of a young female with 3 different ectoparasites, the bedbug Cimex lectularius, the pigeon tick Argas reflexus and the red mite Dermanyssus gallinae, is reported. The parasites invaded the apartment from a balcony used as roost by feral pigeons and infested the patient continuously over a period of more than 2 months. To our knowledge this case presents the first record of a coincidental infestation of a single patient with several ectoparasite species deriving from feral pigeons. Additionally we report general symptoms in the patient probably caused by the high number of stings. Dermatologists should be aware of the possibility of an infestation with ectoparasites deriving from feral pigeons. In a review we give an overview on the most important ectoparasites transmitted from feral pigeons to humans and their importance for the dermatologist