Pigeons (or lack thereof) in Beijing

I got this short query from a blog reader:

Story suggestion:
We were in Beijing last November and were surprised that we saw no pigeons...how is that possible in any city in this day and age?

Thanks!
Susan R***

Anybody have any clues to what lurks behind the “pigeonless” city?

I lived in Nicaragua in the early 1990s and heard many stories about how during the Sandinista Revolution the capital suddenly became devoid of birds. The culprit: Huge use of DDT to kill mosquitoes. The birds eventually came back, and so did the mosquitoes.

I imagine there is a pigeon-extermination brigade in Beijing, although pigeons aren’t one of the “four pests” – rats, sparrows, flies and mosquitoes – that have been the subject of periodic campaigns.

Comments

[al gore]

It's simple. They're delicious!

[Andreas Ramos]

Those pigeons in NYC and Chicago aren't native to the USA. They were brought from Europe. So, unless someone released pigeons in China, there won't be any. Are there pigeons in Australia?

[Robertson Adams]

When I visited Beijing in 1995, I was told pigeons and many birds were killed en masse because they didn't contribute to society. Indeed, there really weren't pigeons anywhere. However there were plenty of whole starlings on the barbecue and in cages at the open-air market.

[pug_ster]

As a New Yorker, I don't think I will miss those poop droppers if they are suddenly disappeared from NYC.

[David Lloyd-Jones]

"al gore",

I think you have it exactly right. I ate pigeon pie in France as a child (and street-stand roasted "squab," roughly starling, in Japan years later.)

Any New Yorker caught up in the current anti-pigeon frenzy, if they're not willing to host a pair of hawks on their balcony, should simply post good pigeon recipes. Broiled; broiled basted in soy sauce robatayaki style; à la mode de Caen (for which you unfortunately need to find a calf's foot or knee); jerk pigeon; pigeon sushi.

That'll get rid of 'em in no time at all. You'll have to import them from some foreign land. Like maybe Newark, New Jersey.

[mike]

I was staying at Beida during '06. Most days I saw, what looked like pigeons packed into crates in the back of trucks. I can't be sure they were pigeons but they seemed to be. It looked like guys had rounded them up and were waiting to drop them up somewhere that night. Of course the fact they were waiting by a KFC makes one wonder.

[mike]

I was staying at Beida during '06. Most days I saw, what looked like pigeons packed into crates in the back of trucks. I can't be sure they were pigeons but they seemed to be. It looked like guys had rounded them up and were waiting to drop them up somewhere that night. Of course the fact they were waiting by a KFC makes one wonder.

[abe]

There were plenty of pigeons in Shanghai when i was living there earlier this year... i also wonder why there aren't any in Beijing...