Pigeons are a quintessential member of urban wildlife across the world. They flock to areas with people — a trait bred into their domestic ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years. In comparison to other major cities in the United States, however, St. Louis does not have many pigeons in the city proper.
While Daisy Lewis was a student at Washington University, she asked her research mentor Elizabeth Carlen why that is. That question is explored in their article in the natural history journal, “Urban Naturalist.”
“There aren't a lot of pedestrians around or restaurants with outdoor seating,” Lewis said. “The biggest takeaway was that human cultural and political histories can influence how pigeons, and probably other organisms that dwell in the city, interact with us today.”
Lewis took her research across the world to Madrid, Spain. She found the European city to be a great juxtaposition to St. Louis. Both cities have the same species of pigeons. “Columba livia,” or feral pigeons, are descendants of homing pigeons, carrier pigeons and pigeons kept as pets that either escaped from their homes or were released into the wild. Their attraction to humans remains in their survival instinct.
Lewis’ and Carlen’s research involved walking the streets of Madrid, Spain and St. Louis, counting pigeons and pedestrians in each city’s central areas. The data they collected showed a vast difference in population for both people and pigeons alike.
“Anybody that is in St. Louis knows that we are a car based culture. We have a highway through downtown, and so this means that it's not very comfortable to walk around or to sit outside and meet up with friends,” Carlen said on St. Louis on the Air. “In Madrid, there has been an active policy to ensure that there are closed off streets where people can just hang out. [Americans] did see some of this during COVID … but we don't have that as a typical part of our culture. [In America] streets are for cars and not for people.”
Their research also looked at the width of roadways, heights of buildings, architecture style and use of buildings. They found that the built environment of these cities impacts the natural environment — and highlights issues of environmental racism as well.
“Think about all the things that kind of come with disinvestment, everything from vacant lots to vacant buildings. Every time something is happening to humans, it's having other impacts on wildlife as well because they're using those exact same resources,” Carlen said. “When we don't restore land, when we don't remediate soil after heavy metal toxin exposure … of course they're going to have downstream impacts on the wildlife.”
Carlen said she hopes their research findings also encourage people to think about pigeons differently, maybe even see them in a kinder light.
“I think that we inherently have this strong desire to connect with wildlife. From someone breaking up their chips and tossing it to a bird, or that desire to see how close you can get to a pigeon before it flies away,” she said. “We know that people are healthier when they have access to green spaces, and part of those green spaces are wildlife. So it's really important that we're getting this opportunity to see wildlife and remind ourselves that we are part of something larger than just ourselves.”
For more on the correlation between pigeon and pedestrian density, including how Madrid’s urban planning post-Franco regime connects people to thriving urban ecosystems, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
