BY: Isabel Martinez & Karina Rosiles Room: 104

Native to most of Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. Throughout the world, including Asia, North and South America, Australasia and most island systems worldwide. These pigeons have been introduced as a food source. Europeans moving to new locations were a source of early introduced populations. It can be found worldwide and it was introduced accidently. Europeans moving to new locations were a source of early introduced populations.

Rock pigeons are known to transmit pigeon ornithosis, encephalitis, Exotic Newcastle Disease, cryptococcosis, toxoplasmosis, salmonella food poisoning, and several other diseases. Exotic Newcastle Disease Rock pigeons are kept and bred by pigeon fanciers for homing and racing competition and in some locations such as Japan and the Galápagos Island they are kept as a food source. In cities worldwide rock pigeons are a source of pleasure for many people who enjoy watching and feeding them. Rock pigeons and their nests are infested with ectoparasites, such as ticks, fleas, and mites, which can cause health problems for humans. Large amounts of droppings may kill vegetation and produce an objectionable odour. Around grain handling facilities, pigeons consume and contaminate large quantities of food destined for human or livestock consumption.

Furthermore, rock pigeons located around airports can be a threat to human safety because of potential bird-craft collisions. In the U.S. alone, they cause $1.1 billion dollars of damage in urban areas annually. In the Galápagos, the rock pigeon is the carrier of Trichomonas gallinae, a potentially fatal disease for endemic Galápagos doves and poultry.

Rock pigeon droppings can accelerate the deterioration of buildings and increase cost of maintenance. Rock doves can destroy corn and other types of crops. Rock doves have caused many fatal diseases. Bird droppings are very acidic and can actually eat away at various substrates, causing leaks in roofs, damage to paint finishes on cars and other painted surfaces, and corrosion in wiring and other machinery parts. These same bird droppings and associated bird nesting materials can also cause machinery to clog, and can accumulate and block gutters causing water to run off in undesirable areas, leading to leaks, and in some cases, roof collapses.

Rock doves can live up to 3-5 years in the wild, and 15 years in captivity. Rock pigeons prefer human habitations and are commonly found around farm yards, grain elevators, feed mills, parks, city buildings, bridges, and other structures. In some settings, rock pigeons will roost and nest in natural areas and make daily foraging flights of several kilometres. Breeding may occur at all seasons, but peak reproduction occurs in the spring and fall, that’s why they have stayed around a lot. Rock pigeons are primarily granivorous, but will consume insects and other food items.

If these pigeons keep reproducing at a rapid amount of time, more diseases would be spread and more damage will be caused to buildings. Several techniques are available to prevent rock pigeons from establishing in an area or to exclude them if they are already established. Suggested that frightening, repellents, trapping, shooting, and nest removal may be useful and practical approaches to manage rock pigeons in conjunction with habitat modification measures. Eradication campaigns have been carried out on Isabela, San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz islands using a combination of methods: shooting, catching them by hand, using baits laced with alpha- chloralose to stupefy them.

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