Pigeons are a quintessential member of urban wildlife around the world. They flock to areas with people — a trait bred into their domestic ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years. In comparison to other major cities in the United States, however, St. Louis does not have many pigeons in the city proper.
While Daisy Lewis was a student at Washington University, she asked her research mentor Elizabeth Carlen why that is. That question is explored in their article in the natural history journal, “Urban Naturalist.”
“There aren’t a lot of pedestrians around or restaurants with outdoor seating,” Lewis said. “The biggest takeaway was that human cultural and political histories can influence how pigeons, and probably other organisms that dwell in the city, interact with us today.”…