A Pigeon Story

Surrounded by German troops, 500 American soldiers faced the prospect of imminent death. Although the German threat was significant, a greater threat loomed on the horizon. Believing they were helping the trapped soldiers, the American command ordered a barrage of artillery to break up the German onslaught. Unbeknownst to higher command, the shells were falling directly on the trapped American troops. By day two, more than half the soldiers had perished. Just when all hope seemed lost, the last carrier pigeon named Cher Ami was dispatched.

German troops quickly responded by filling the sky with bullets. Flying erratically, the injured bird somehow persevered and began to gain altitude. Cher Ami flew 25 miles in 25 minutes where the now covered in blood bird finally collapsed. Attached to his foot was a canister containing a message:

We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven's sake, stop it.

Cher Ami saved the lives of over 200 Americans that day. Although Cher Ami completed his mission, the bird ended up losing a leg and was blinded in one eye. For his service, our French ally gave Cher Ami the Croix de guerre medal of honor. Less than a year later, Cher Ami succumbed to his injuries and is today on display in Washington D.C. at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

This sad tale of avian determination and endurance raises the question of how exactly do you train a pigeon to deliver a message across enemy lines? Pigeons are usually devoted to their mates and will fly hundreds of miles without any break if necessary to reconnect with them. In fact, for reasons still unknown, pigeons can make their way home without any knowledge of their location. Although they will use visual cues if available to streamline their flight patterns, they do not require prior knowledge of a flight route to complete their journey.

Once air born, pigeons will circle their launch point a few times to gain their bearings. Afterwards, it is speculated that they rely on a combination of sun orientation, magnetic sensory, scent cues and if available, memory recognition of landmarks to quickly compute their location and optimize their flight plan.

This amazing behavior has not gone unappreciated by scientists who today study their incredible mental processing capabilities. Although their brains are small, what they do have they use well. In lab tests, pigeons can easily decipher the sex of a human face even with 95 percent of the image blocked (a feat that would challenge many of their human counterparts).

In flight, a pigeon's heart beat can increase to 600 beats per minute. Their amazing endurance, mastery of vertical flight and cognitive ability at facial recognition and uncanny knack to find their way home from virtually anywhere, puts them in a class by themselves. They may not be the prettiest of birds, but this monogamous and loving species that greets its mate in what can only be described as an avian kiss is one of the great wonders of our world that deserves respect despite the sidewalk presents they often leave behind.

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