HOMING PIGEONS for emergency communication

A homing pigeon returning to the roost.

In this series of blogs on emergency communications I will explore means of communicating with your group, your church, your club, your family, during an emergency or simply as a means to communicate without relying on external means, like the telephone line or internet.  Future articles will explore the use of couriers and HAM radios as well.  

In this article we will discuss the use of homing or carrier pigeons.  Pigeons are an ancient, reliable means of communication that can be very secure and do not require electricity, and, they are EMP proof.  No one can “hack” into your pigeon, at least not electronically. In fact, there is little that humans can do to effect the carrier pigeon, as we will see.  

Communications pigeons of the PLA.

While researching this article I discovered that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the PLA, raises and trains carrier pigeons to this day. According to an article in the Telegraph, “Chen Chuntao, the officer responsible for the pigeon "army," said the birds were the "most practical and effective short and medium distance tool for communications if there is electromagnetic interference or a collapse in our signals. In modern warfare, the pigeon is indispensable," he added. "There are as many (PLA) military pigeons as there are soldiers in the Swiss army, for example." The core of the unit are the successors of hundreds of messenger pigeons brought to China in 1937 by Claire Chennault, a retired United States Army pilot that led the famous American Volunteer Group, also known as the Flying Tigers, who helped repel the Japanese invasion of the Chinese mainland.

U.S. Army Paratroopers with a signal pigeon.

Homing pigeons have a very long history of being used as a means of military communications. The U.S. Army Signal Corps had a Signal Pigeon Service during both World Wars. During WWII, the force consisted of 3,150 Soldiers and 54,000 war pigeons, which were considered an undetectable method of communication. Over 90% of U.S. Army messages sent by pigeons were received. Also during WWII, clandestine communicators like the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the various European and Asian resistance organizations relied heavily on the carrier pigeon. Even though the radio communication system of WWII was still rudimentary by today’s standards, the major powers had already figured out how to locate, intercept and jam enemy radio communications. 

We may dismiss this method as slow but in 2009 a pigeon racer in South Africa proved that he could communicate faster than the internet by sending a 4GB thumb drive by pigeon to a point 60 miles away while simultaneously attempting to download the same 4GB file with broad band DSL via the internet.  You know the rest of the story.  Winston the pigeon took one hour and eight minutes to carry the data across the 60-mile course, and it took another hour to upload the data. During the same time, the DSL had sent just 4% of the data. In all fairness, the event was staged to embarrass the internet provider into improving its internet speed.  The point I took away, however, was that you could send electronic media strapped to a pigeon and it can arrive unmolested.  None of us can say that about any of our e-mails since we are all subject to criminal hackers and warrantless government surveillance.  

“Sure, sure”, you say, “but what about a shotgun? I can shoot a pigeon right out of the sky. And what about hawks and eagles?”  Good points, so I researched them.  Since 90% of pigeon communications by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in WWII were received successfully, how did they do it?  The answer is the pigeon is vulnerable at the beginning of its flight and at the end.  At those times the bird is ascending to and descending from its flight altitude.  However, its flight altitude is very high.  It is out of accurate small arms range and it is essentially out of raptor range because another advantage of the pigeon is that it ascends quickly.  This trait lowers the chances of being captured by a hawk or eagle.  The large raptors descend quickly to kill in the air, but they cannot ascend as quickly as a pigeon.  Once the pigeon reaches it flight altitude it is less likely to fall to a raptor because raptors tend to hunt at lower altitudes.  But, yes, they are still vulnerable.  So you will notice that I said 90% of pigeon communications were received, not that 90% of pigeons were received.  The answer is redundancy.  If you release more than one pigeon with the same message your chances of getting your message through are almost perfect.  The more pigeons released, the better your chances of success.  Obviously, if you attach written messages or electronic media that is not encrypted it is open to exploitation by anyone who finds it.  If security of your communications is important you should consider any of the amazing types of encryption available to the public.  

Racing pigeons in Belgium.

There is a large community around the world of pigeon “racers” and fanciers that get together and compete in their chosen sport.  Often they race their pigeons from a common starting point or from a chosen distance from their home roosts and they can track their birds electronically so they know exactly when they start and when they arrive.  The best racers are chosen for breeding programs and their offspring can sell for exorbitant amounts of money, just like race horses.  A pigeon racer in China reportedly paid $328,000.00 for one amazing racing pigeon.  Who woulda thunk it? 

So you are convinced. You want pigeons. What do you do next? The first thing I recommend is finding and contacting pigeon racing clubs in your area. If you live in the U.S. you can locate a local chapter of the American Racing Pigeon Union by going to www.pigeon.org/findaclub.php. Another great resource, that is free, is the Pigeon Insider, a website dedicated to racing pigeons, where you can download a free beginner handbook, http://www.pigeonracingpigeon.com/beginners-handbook/. I found it helpful. The internet is full of opportunities to buy, sell and trade pigeons of every imaginable type, not to mention advice on buying, raising, training and breeding pigeons. Pigeons and doves are from the same family of birds which contain about 310 species. They come in many varieties, conformities and colors. An afternoon on-line can be very eye opening! You can go to any of the popular video channels and see tons of videos about pigeons, roosts, racing and even recipes! I haven’t mentioned it until now, but you can also eat pigeons.  You may have heard of squab, which is pigeon.  What did you think happened to all those PLA pigeons that didn’t make the team?

Roast squab.

Video: Pigeons smuggling into a prison.