For some time now, the pigeons of Barcelona seem more arrogant, daring, arrogant... You pass by their side and they don't fly up, they continue there calmly, on any curb. Suddenly you feel a threatening shadow, and you go and crook your neck, put a hand to your face, and a dove flies by just an inch from your face! Sometimes they even crash into one and all.
Or they go and settle in a group on the table of a terrace and at full speed they eat the remains of a tapa or a kebab before the waiter has time to pick them up. Like they're done losing respect for people, people. Besides, there are so many, every day more... Don't you have the impression that lately more pigeons live in Barcelona than ever?
Technicians from the Animal Welfare area of the City Council point out that the pigeons of Barcelona have grown fat and settled down, that they have become so accustomed to being fed by so many people and also to stumbling upon succulent remains everywhere that they have already buried a good part of their most natural instincts. , that these birds already see us as a simple source of fast, simple and immediate food, and that on top of that they have become super demanding.
Put yourself in the plumage of a pigeon, in its skin, why are you going to rummage through one tree after another in search of fruit if you have an abundance of chips, paella dishes and pizza crusts within reach of your beak? Do you know how tiring it is to fly from one tree to another? Identifying the most nutritious fruits and seeds and extracting them is much more complicated. In the end, the pigeons of Barcelona became reckless, trusting, incautious, idiots? Are the pigeons of Barcelona, of the big cities, dumber every day? Your world here became one gigantic free buffet! And the starch tastes terrible to them. In addition, this heat also contributes to the fact that most of them go dazed, half dazed. It is already known that heat and overweight marry fatally.
In truth we are witnessing a slow degradation of the city pigeon as a species. And yes, the problem is basically their overfeeding, therein lies the origin of the strange behavior of these animals, as pointed out by Joan Carles Senar, head of research at the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona, a true scholar of the birds that live in the urban media.
“The problem is that in the city we provide so much food to the pigeons that we have altered the natural selection of the entire species – details the scientist – so that no longer only those specimens that are better prepared, the smartest, the most ingenious, the most skilful and resolute, but also the most easy-going, the laziest, the clumsiest, and the stupidest. And the truth is that pigeons were never very smart. His role was always that of prey meat. But in the city they hardly have predators. How many pairs of falcons are there in Barcelona? Three, four...? And the seagulls began to eat them in the 80s. A silly pigeon is not afraid of anything. That's why they get hit by cars."
Currently, the life expectancy of a Barcelona pigeon is two years, while that of a pigeon from the countryside is six. And in this way, generation after generation, the pigeons of Barcelona transmit and inherit diseases and little by little they spoil while multiplying their numbers in an exaggerated way.
It's been a few decades now that Barcelona has suffered from a large overpopulation of pigeons. Not a few citizens know them as "air rats". The dimensions of this problem are, however, somewhat fuzzy. Sources from the City Council's Animal Welfare area indicate that when the density of pigeons is between 300 and 400 specimens per km2, it is necessary to establish population control measures. And the sources of the City Council estimate that at the moment the density of pigeons in the Catalan capital oscillates between 1,300 and 1,700 copies per km2. This is a purely indicative estimate. The last counts of pigeons in Barcelona date from the years 2017 and 2018, and then they showed a population of about 103,226 copies, with a fairly wide margin of error, of about 22,000 copies up and down.
Senar, the expert from the Museu de Ciències Naturals, maintains that the situation has not improved in recent years. “The problem is that the distribution of contraceptive feed, a measure with a strong political component, is not effective. Political correctness greatly influences the treatment of animals, but in reality its results are highly questionable. In the last eight years the City Council opted for these methods. But while the pigeons have so much food so easily, installing contraceptive feed dispensers is a waste of money. It's useless."
The City Council sources indicate that Barcelona has 47 contraceptive feed dispensers, “prepared to cover 36 colonies of pigeons. We install them based on criteria of density and inconvenience caused”. The drug inhibits the development of the egg yolk and causes reversible infertility. Apparently these colonies were reduced by 60%. But the incidence of this percentage in the total population of pigeons in the city is rather low. The municipal technicians also recognize that as long as the pigeons continue to have so much food within reach of their beak...
Years ago, the City Council prohibited the sale of feed for pigeons from the stalls in Plaza Catalunya. In addition, from time to time, the City Council launches awareness campaigns so that people do not feed these birds. In the city it is not forbidden to feed the animals, but throwing food on public roads is. In any case, the question is not as simple as it might seem.
It is not just about convincing tourists not to take these colorful photos surrounded by birds in Plaza Catalunya. Many people who feed pigeons on a regular basis do so to assuage their loneliness. His behavior is a reflection of a more serious problem. In fact, the City Council has a training program so that the informants in charge of raising awareness among the population are very aware of these issues.
“In Basel they asked the population to stop feeding the pigeons and they managed to reduce their population in a very important way – recalls Sener, the expert –, of course, people pay much more attention to the authorities there.
