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ENVIRONMENT

French city to use ‘contraceptive lofts’ in bid to halve pigeon population

Strasbourg, the picturesque city in north-east France, is testing out a pigeon birth control technique that officials estimate will humanely halve the number of pigeons in just three years.

Published: 29 August 2024 12:21 CEST
A flying pigeon
A flying pigeon. (Photo by FRED TANNEAU / AFP)

If you are walking through Strasbourg, you may notice a pair of large, wooden bird houses, but the pigeons entering will not be going there just to snack and rest. 

These are ‘contraceptive’ pigeon houses – each containing tame pigeons – and they have been installed in the Esplanade and Gare districts of the city.

The tame pigeons attract the Eurometropole’s wild pigeon population to the specially created lofts – which also offer food and shelter.

“We put in a dozen tame pigeons. They coo and attract other pigeons. They are locked up first, then when they come out, they bring in the others,” Marie-Françoise Hamard, the municipal councillor in charge of animals, told the Actu news website.

Once installed, the pairs lay eggs in one of each loft’s 76 niches. And this can happen quickly – pigeons lay dozens of eggs and produce up to 20 young per year per pair.

Twice a month, specialists are sent to sterilise the eggs, pricking them with a fine needle to prevent it developing. Not all eggs are sterilised – one egg per pair per year is left intact.

Hamard added: “We need to manage the population over the long term. Today, more and more cities are turning to this gentle method.”

The pigeon population is expected to fall steadily. “We anticipate a drop of around 15 percent per year, or half in three years.”

The municipality is already working to set the location of two more pigeon lofts in the near future.

Why decrease the number of pigeons?

Urban pigeons are considered to be pests, due to their numbers in city environments. They and their droppings can spread disease, while they carry mites, fleas and ticks. 

But typical culling schemes are considered cruel and have mixed success in controlling numbers.

In 2023, animal rights association Paris Animaux Zoopolis (PAZ) investigated several cities, including Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes, Reims, Rennes, Angers and Villeurbanne for allegedly gassing pigeons and/or using surgical sterilisation.

Meanwhile, some French cities have tested out other, less invasive techniques, including birth control inside of grains that they eat, as was done in Saint-Saëns in the Seine-Maritime département.

Member comments

  1. Nous avons domestiqué ces animaux, nous leur avons appris à venir à nous et à passer du temps avec nous, et puis nous n’en avons plus eu besoin, nous les avons attaqués et les avons qualifiés de nuisibles. J’ai vraiment l’impression que ce sont les humains qui sont les nuisibles ici.

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ENVIRONMENT

‘Bees starving’ in disastrous year for French honey

Beekeepers across France say it has been a disastrous year for honey, with bees starving to death and production plummeting by up to 80 percent.

Published: 24 August 2024 16:38 CEST
'Bees starving' in disastrous year for French honey

Mickael Isambert, a beekeeper in Saint-Ours-les-Roches in central France, lost 70 percent of his honey and had to feed his colonies sugar to help them survive after a cold, rainy spring.

“It has been a catastrophic year,” said Isambert, 44, who looks after 450 hives.

A beehive typically produces 15 kilos (33 pounds) of honey a year, but this time, Isambert said his farm had only produced between five and seven kilos.

When it rains, bees “don’t fly, they don’t go out, so they eat their own honey reserves,” said his co-manager and fellow beekeeper Marie Mior.

Low temperatures and heavy rainfall have prevented bees from gathering enough pollen, and flowers from producing nectar — which the insects collect to make honey.

‘Some died of hunger’

Bad weather has affected honey producers countrywide, with spring production dropping by 80 percent in some regions — figures that summer harvests will struggle to offset, said the French national beekeeping union (Unaf).

Rainfall rose by 45 percent on the yearly average, Unaf said in a letter to its local branches.

“With weather conditions that have been catastrophic in many regions with abundant rain… and low temperatures until late, many beekeepers’ viability is under threat,” said Unaf.

Temperatures stagnated below 18 degrees Celsius (64 Fahrenheit), the minimum temperature needed for flowers to produce nectar, said Jean-Luc Hascoet, a beekeeper in Brittany in western France who lost about 15 colonies.

“For some of my colleagues it was worse,” he said.

“In June, the bee population increases and the needs of the colonies grow but as nothing was coming in, some died of hunger,” said Hascoet.

‘Black year’ 

French beekeepers had already been reeling from dealing with several seasons of scorching heat and delayed frosts, according to Unaf president Christian Pons, making this “black year” even worse.

“Ten years ago, I made one and a half to two tons of honey per site, compared to 100 kilos today,” said Pons, a beekeeper in the southern Herault region.

Honeymakers earlier this year protested against “unfair competition” by foreign producers, which led to the government releasing five million euros ($5.6 million) in aid.

French consumers eat on average 45,000 tons of honey per year, about 20,000 tons of which is produced in France, according to the left-wing Peasants Confederation union.

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