The earliest pigeon fanciers.

Bibliographic Collection: 
APE
Publication Type: Journal Article
Authors: Blasco, Ruth; Finlayson, Clive; Rosell, Jordi; Marco, Antonio Sánchez; Finlayson, Stewart; Finlayson, Geraldine; Negro, Juan José; Pacheco, Francisco Giles; Vidal, Joaquín Rodríguez
Year of Publication: 2014
Journal: Sci Rep
Volume: 4
Pagination: 5971
Date Published: 2014
Publication Language: eng
ISSN: 2045-2322
Keywords: Animals, Bone and Bones, Caves, Columbidae, Fossils, Humans, Neanderthals
Abstract:

Feral Pigeons have colonised all corners of the Earth, having developed a close association with humans and their activities. The wild ancestor of the Feral Pigeon, the Rock Dove, is a species of rocky habitats, nesting typically on cliff ledges and at the entrance to large caves. This habit would have brought them into close contact with cave-dwelling humans, a relationship usually linked to the development of dwellings in the Neolithic. We show that the association between humans and Rock Doves is an ancient one with its roots in the Palaeolithic and predates the arrival of modern humans into Europe. At Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, the Neanderthals exploited Rock Doves for food for a period of over 40 thousand years, the earliest evidence dating to at least 67 thousand years ago. We show that the exploitation was not casual or sporadic, having found repeated evidence of the practice in different, widely spaced, temporal contexts within the cave. Our results point to hitherto unappreciated capacities of the Neanderthals to exploit birds as food resources on a regular basis. More so, they were practising it long before the arrival of modern humans and had therefore invented it independently.

DOI: 10.1038/srep05971
Alternate Journal: Sci Rep