Things I Learned from EOTO Presentations

Watching the EOTO presentations, one topic I found interesting to learn about was carrier pigeons. I learned that the use of these birds to spread new and information dates all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians. This surprised me, as I did not realize this practice started so long ago.  

One question I had before the presentation was how people train carrier pigeons. In the presentation, I discovered that carrier pigeons get taught that a certain place is their home. These pigeons can then be brought hundreds of miles away, and when let go they will fly back to their home.  Essentially, each pigeon will only fly back to one specific location, and in this way they were used to deliver messages.

In the EOTO presentation, I discovered that carrier pigeons greatly helped increase the speed of communication. This was not something I found surprising, as I understand that birds were faster than the mail system back then. However, I did find it interesting that that carrier pigeons greatly helped increase the development of the written word, as well as spread intellectual ideas. This is because as these birds increased the speed at which letters and information were delivered, more people found it necessary to know how to read and write. I thought this was a positive but interesting effect of the use of carrier pigeons that I did not know about before. 

Lastly, although I thought the use of carrier pigeons was extinct, I learned that they are actually used today to traffic drugs. Originally this use surprised me. However, I realized it does make sense, as carrier pigeons provide an easy was to get substances across country boarders without detection. 

Overall, I found it both fun and interesting to learn about carrier pigeons, including the history of their use, how they are trained, how they helped the development of the world, and their current use today.