The longest homing pigeon race is a tense affair for the Philippines’ sizable flock of fans. The brutal 600 kilometer Mac Arthur competition is a daunting task for these birds and their owners.
Overwhelming heat, raging seas, violent predators, and even threat of kidnapping by people are amongst the woes. “Pigeons are very unlikely to return home because when it is hot, they go ashore and are immediately caught by kidnappers.
There are also nets in place to catch them”, said race director, Nelson Chua. Racing pigeons can be worth thousands of dollars because they can make a lot of money for their owners. Once, a Chinese buyer spent up to $1.45 million on a bird at an auction for Belgium’s best long-distance racing pigeon of all time.
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance. The time it takes the animal to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird’s rate of travel is calculated and compared with all of the other pigeons in the race to determine which animal returned at the highest speed.
Pigeon racing requires a specific breed of pigeon bred for the sport, the Racing Homer. Competing pigeons are specially trained and conditioned for races that vary in distance from approximately 100 kilometers (62 mi) to 1,000 kilometers (620 mi). Despite these lengths, races can be won and lost by seconds, so many different timing and measuring devices have been developed.
The traditional timing method involves rubber rings being placed into a specially designed clock, whereas a newer development uses RFID tags to record arrival time.
Pigeons are the oldest domesticated bird. The predecessors of modern-day racing pigeons were pigeons bred for their homing ability, primarily to carry messages. “Pigeon posts” have been established all over the world and while mainly used in the military, some are still in service today. Modern pigeon racing originated in Belgium in the mid 19th century.
The sport was aided by several new technologies of the era. The advent of the railroad permitted pigeons to be sent to distant release points quickly and at modest cost. In addition, the creation of mass-produced, sophisticated timing clocks brought accurate and secure timing to the sport.
These clocks were designed with special compartments where an entry band, removed from the returning race bird was placed. When struck, the clock recorded the time and also placed the band in a compartment that could only be opened by race officials.
The importance of homing pigeons in the centuries before electronic communications, such as the telegraph and telephone, is seldom recognized.
However, the Reuters News Agency, the world’s largest information provider, began as a pigeon service carrying closing stock prices between Belgium and Germany, basically between the western and eastern terminus of the telegraph in Europe.
