With two new members, Patrick and Costa, the first official battle between Team Cherry 🍒 and Team Banana 🍌 revolves around the topic of (*drums*) Tracking Pigeons in Vienna! 🕊️ Quite a challenge but both teams managed to dig in the most interesting and relevant scientific findings and wrap them up in a great podcast episode!

No doubt the flying rats have a terrible reputation...

Hit the play button ▶️ and learn more about the fascinating nature of pigeons and how the urban areas have shaped the relationship between humans and birds. Why are pigeons so good at navigating spaces? What makes them such an interesting object in various scientific fields? Are pigeons actually cyborgs??? How can we deal with the issue of pigeon poop all over the place and why is it bad to feed pigeons in the first place? 🧐

This, and much more, as well as a sneak-peek to our interviews with experts from the NGO Tierschutzverein and the Tierschutzombudsstelle in Vienna, exclusively on the first episode of the Science Slot Machine. 🧠 We promise you will be a pigeon expert after this!

❗️ Please avoid feeding pigeons on the street – unless it's their naturally required food: grains! – and don’t forget to report cases of sick or injured pigeons on the local wild animal hotline +43 1 4000 49090.

Last but not least: Let’s spin the science slot machine reels again and see which topic hits the jackpot! 🎰 Drop us your suggestions to scienceslotmachine@gmail.com

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2. Bingman, V. P., Hough, G. E., Kahn, M. C., & Siegel, J. J. (2003). The homing pigeon hippocampus and space: in search of adaptive specialization. Brain, behavior, and evolution, 62(2), 117–127.


3. Dobeic, M., Pintaric, S., Vlahovic, K., & Dovc, A. (2011). Feral pigeon (Columba livia) population management in Ljubljana. Veterinarski Arhiv, 81(2), 285–298.


4. Haraway, D. (2003). The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.


5. Johnston, R. F., & Janiga, M. (1995). Feral Pigeons. Oxford University Press.


6. Rose, E., Nagel, P., & Haag-Wackernagel, D. (2005). Suitability of using the global positioning system (GPS) for studying Feral Pigeons Columba livia in the urban habitat. Bird Study, 52(2), 145–1


7. Senar, J. C., Montalvo, T., Pascual, J., & Peracho, V. (2017). Reducing the availability of food to control feral pigeons: Changes in population size and composition. Pest Management Science, 73(2), 313–317.


8. Skinner, B. F. (1948). 'Superstition' in the pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38(2), 168–172.


9. Soldatini, C., Mainardi, D., Baldaccini, N. E., & Giunchi, D. (2006). A temporal analysis of the foraging flights of feral pigeons (Columba livia f. Domestica) from three Italian cities. Italian Journal of Zoology, 73(1), 83–92.


10. Stephan, C., Wilkinson, A., & Huber, L. (2012). Have We Met Before? Pigeons Recognise Familiar Human Faces. Avian Biology Research, 5(2), 75–80.


11. Stephan, C., Wilkinson, A., & Huber, L. (2013). Pigeons discriminate objects on the basis of abstract familiarity. Animal Cognition, 16(6), 983–992.


12. Tierschutztombudsstelle Wien. (2020). Tieranwalt.at—Stadttaubenkonzept der Tierschutzombudsstelle Wien. Tieranwalt.at. https://www.tieranwalt.at/stadttaube.htm