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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Pigeon Brained


Professor Pigeon

I was sitting in a park in downtown Valencia enjoying the sun and people-watching as I waited for someone. I engaged in a conversation with an American visitor about “My Valencia,” which we both absolutely took so much from. A lady appeared very close to my bench with a small bag of corn or special feed for pigeons, and she dumped it in a single pile and walked away. What happened next was the most fascinating thing I have seen in quite a while.

As is the way of pigeons in the park, if you drop a mere crumb they come in a hurry to snap it up. As the lady walked away a flock of birds descended, but they merely surrounded the pile of corn and stood their distance. They actually stopped moving around and just stared at this bounty that was clearly too good to be true. Who would be the first to go in and sample it for the others?

Some took a few tentative steps forward, paused, then thought better of it and flew away. It was so obviously a trap and not one of them was willing to get too close. The pile of corn remained there for forty-five minutes unmolested. The birds came and went but not one had sufficient courage. In the thirty-fifth minute one black pigeon approached. He was there on his own, and for ten minutes he made several approaches where I thought he would actually go for it. However, it was as though I could actually hear his thoughts. Certainly by the way he bobbed his head he expected someone or something to pounce upon him.

Finally, in the forty-fifth minute he grabbed a kernel and jumped away. Nothing happened, so he went in and grabbed two bites and then backed off. He stood and looked all around, and I held my breath that someone would not come too close to confirm his suspicions.

Finally, he went back and started to feed normally, and in a few seconds a great number of birds came flying in to join him. Clearly he was kept under observation all the while, and seeing that nothing bad happened to the pioneer they joined the table in such numbers that the food was all gone in seven minutes.

I’m fairly sure that we humans don’t give the humble pigeon credit for being able to think through a problem, but here was a clear example of their capabilities from the point of determining that something was too good to be true, to taking their time to do a proper test to conclude it was safe after all with a minimum loss potential.

Humans have failed in this very same such situation on many occasions to our regret and loss. We should listen and take note of the lesson of the pigeon.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael