3Novices:Obscure truths

Lieutenant Pigeon

HIS was a daunting task. It was October 1918 and, with the 77th Infantry Division cut off from all other American forces, Major Charles Whittlesey sent him to inform allies of the soldiers’ predicament. Shot after shot was fired from the trenches as he made his perilous journey. Then, just as he reached Rampont, the local headquarters, a bullet severed his leg. He died eight months after the war ended, and received the Croix de Guerre posthumously, for the message he delivered had saved the lives of 194 men. He was then stuffed and shipped to the Smithsonian Museum, in Washington, DC, to be remembered as Cher Ami, the bravest homing pigeon of the first world war.

Being shot at will hasten anyone’s journey. But might the thick smoke of battle have helped Cher Ami on his way too? That, at least, is the suggestion of a study just published in Scientific Reports by Li Zhongqiu of Nanjing University, in China, and Daniel Blumstein and Franck Courchamp, who both work at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr Li and his colleagues have sought to study how air pollution...Continue reading

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3Novices