Flora and Fauna
 

This thread is dedicated to the general discussion of flora and fauna found by FlyerTalk members during their travels all over the world.

For example, one observation I have noticed is that whether I travel to major cities worldwide, such as Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Paris or New York, the pigeons seem to be exactly the same species. Are they really the same, or are there subtle differences I simply am not noticing? Are there any other species of flora or fauna found throughout the planet that are indeed the same?

The pigeons are feral descendants of the domesticated Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) and have spread with humanity (as have rats, dogs, cats). The wingflashes seem to be the common pattern that they carry. There might be different races depending on what stock they derived from.

From my observation I'd have thought that spotted doves and zebra doves were much more common in SE Asia than the kind of pigeon we see in the west. Both have distinctive appearances, and IMHO are much prettier than the western feral pigeons.

What I've noticed about pigeons is that it's not a Good Thing to stand directly under a bunch of them...

Seriously though, in some places there seems to be a greater proportion of dark feathered ones than light feathered ones. For instance in Japan, you hardly get to see any of the latter. There was a TV program once showing that this was an adaptation to crows preying on the lighter ones; the darker feathers probably made the pigeons less likely to stand out.

Speaking of pigeons...

On a cruise I took along the Norwegian Coast in 2004, we had a pigeon that stayed with the ship all the way from Southampton, to the very northern tip of Norway at Honningsvag/Nordkapp. By the time we had reached the high arctic, the pigeon seemed a bit confused, and was surviving on breakfast crumbs left on the rear deck of the ship. AFAIK, that was the only pigeon in Honningsvag that summer, as there definitely weren't any others of his kind around up there.

The Rock Dove/Feral Pigeon thing has been got.

Other species which appear almost everywhere are usually closely associated with man (Chicken, originally from India, Black/Norwegian rats (from boats would be the two I'd pick on). Some species were deliberate introductions (house Sparrows in Europe, introduced into N America, but not found much outside those two continents). And then there are a very few species which are really ubiquitous - Barn Owls for example are (naturally) present on virtually every continent (Antarctica and possibly Australia). Marine tend to be more ubiquitous in some ways, since migration is easier if you can swim.

There are lots of house sparrows in Australia.

Audrey

Maybe the pigeon realised he could feed off the ship. Those who travel the London underground, especially the surface lines (District, Hammersmith & City and Circle) know that pigeons seem to hop onto trains, travel for several stops while feeding, and hop off a few stops later.

I've noticed a difference in the squirrels in SE US and in Canada around the Vancouver area. In my corner of the country, most squirrels running around are small and brown. In Vancouver, they were rather large (some were close to the size of a small cat) and dark black. They could have eaten their southern neighbors for lunch.

The black squirrel is actually the Eastern Gray Squirrel. They were introudced some 40 years ago with mixed pairs of gray and black.

I had a vague memory we'd shipped them off down there too, but couldn't really say for sure :)

The main difference with black squirrels is that they are pure evil. Instead of feeding on nuts and such, they feed on souls. The ones in DC are particularly evil...

Solution: Brunswick Stew.

Unfortunately, I'm vegan, so that's not gonna happen. Even were I not, I don't think city squirrel would be particularly palatable. I just run the suckers down with my car when given the chance... :eek:

NZ too.

I haven't seen the native NZ pigeon anywhere other than NZ.