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.
Strasbourg compte réduire de moitié la population de pigeons grâce à ces drôles de cabanes en bois https://t.co/EAuMHWA0Tw
— Actu Strasbourg (@ActuStrasbourg) August 28, 2024
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.
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.