hello my friends and welcome back to life's biggest questions I'll be your
host Jared Bronstein and before we start today's video make sure you are
subscribed to the channel and click that bell so you could have the answers
before anyone else as always make sure you drop some comments below with a
question you'd like answered or even thoughts on this video I'll be
responding to some comments from a previous video after we get to the
bottom of the following question what would happen if pigeon someone extinct
so join me as we go in the journey of how the extinction of these pestering
little birds who always seem to be in my way would affect our world as we know it
so pigeons they poop everywhere they walk weird with their heads going back
and forth and they like to get real close to you until you quite literally
almost step on them accidentally of course but believe it or not they
actually are quite vital for our entire ecosystem as crazy as it sounds pigeons
really do take care of a lot of work behind the scenes think I'm full of it
here's a question for you to answer where do all the dead pigeons go really
think about it how could the city clean up pigeons so often but leave roadkill
it just didn't make sense turns out dead pigeons are considered
food for a ton of animals or rodents if you will from stray cats to Hawks to
even tortoises I know it sounds crazy but I found a video of it look it up
these multicolored birds seem to be vital for many different species so if
they were to go extinct who knows how it could affect those who feed on them I
mean I think the tortoises will be ok as pigeons aren't a regular part of their
diet but for larger birds such as hawks owls
and even stray cats they might have to find new sources of food and if they
have trouble doing that we might see a ripple effect take place down the line
but pigeons are also known to carry disease so maybe the extinction of them
wouldn't be so bad after all well although they carry more than 60
types of pathogens according the term XCOM these diseases usually aren't fatal
to humans but they could be fatal if they infected another type of animal
that humans eat on a regular basis again that chain effect comes into mind here's
an example a diseased pigeon is eaten by a hawk that same hawk goes after a
chicken in a coop but the farmer fends off the hawk to save his chickens some
of the chickens were attacked or maybe infected although they aren't
killed still they are infected by the disease now the chickens eggs are
potentially affected as well and the chicken itself as much as we don't want
to believe they would still be served as food you never really know what goes
down we just trust what we get at the supermarket or our local market is fresh
and disease-free 99% of the time it is but there's always the smallest
possibility it isn't now before you guys worry that all your poultry is infected
I wouldn't be all that concerned the odds of a hawk attacking a chicken and
knock it in a way with some food is slim to none these things usually end up
getting what they want but another possibility is the lack of food for
these birds or stray cats could lead to us fearing for our pets lives literally
a hungry Hawk wouldn't have an issue picking up a small dog for instance if
it really needed to eat that badly maybe you put your dog out on the leash and
run to the bathroom that's more than enough time for a desperate bird to get
its food for the day again unlikely but a possibility to say the least
same goes for raccoons coyotes foxes even wild ferrets now depending where
you live you may see more of one animal than the other or none of them at all
but if that's the case they're most likely aren't very many pigeons where
you live anyway so the extinction of pigeons probably wouldn't affect you
personally all that much of course when the carrier pigeon you know the ones
that would literally be responsible for sending handwritten messages to people
went extinct it wasn't all that big of a deal because people weren't using them
as often the telephone had become a thing and as a society we kind of just
found a way to adjust a life without them fortunately aside from of course
some animals who prey on these little fellows for food I don't think the
extinction of pigeons would necessarily have catastrophic effects on earth as we
know it but pigeons are known for being quite intelligent so much so they were
being used as a part of project C hunt a Navy run project that saw pigeons
identifying red or yellow lifejackets floating in the water this led some
researchers to believe they could be used to help save those who are stranded
due to a capsized or sinking boat in a quicker a more efficient way compared to
that of the human eye pigeons can see colors the way we do but also have the
ability to see ultraviolet a part of the spectrum we as humans can't see this
factors into the belief that they could be used to help stranded sea lovers in
the worst case scenario that they are left floating in the middle of the ocean
for example but most pigeons seem to have a lifespan of six years or so
meaning that they have to be recycled quite frequently to be used effectively
but let me say before you guys stop putting your dogs and the leashes out
front and run into the washroom there is such an abundance of pigeons in New York
City alone that I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon I mean you
should never really leave a dog unattended for other reasons we won't
get into but fear that a large bird will see your pup as prey shouldn't be at the
top of your list now as always I'd love to hear what you guys think about
pigeons in general if they went extinct would it really
be that of a tragedy or would you cheer yourself to sleep at night make sure let
me know in the comments down below while you do that I'll be responding to some
comments from the video what happens if you eat rotten chicken
Candace Carter said please do more health video good work on the video
Candace I really appreciate that it's definitely a suggestion we'll take into
consideration when you all types of videos obviously extinction videos as
well as some far-fetched videos I'm actually working on one right now that's
it's a funny video I'm not going to tell you guys obviously which one it is
because we're gonna save it for a little bit later but it has to do with one of
my favorite cartoons being a real person so there you go
Chris Johnson said I couldn't tell if Jared called Jack a fun guy or a fun guy
lol I said fun guy it sounds like fungi but fun space guy if you guys don't know
what I was referring to I was referring to Kawhi Leonard when he joined the
Raptors and the reporters asked him to tell Toronto a little bit about himself
and he really didn't know what to say he just said I'm a fun guy so how is this
referencing that you guys haven't seen the video make sure you look up Kawhi
Leonard laughs and you'll see the whole thing go down but to clarify yes jack is
a fun guy and a fun guy a lot of you guys said something about the hunger
effect which I had to look up but it's from Minecraft apparently if you eat
rotten flesh or chicken or something you get the hunger effect
I don't play Minecraft guys I play mostly Xbox play World of Warcraft to
you sometimes but minecraft not be betting for me but if you guys want to
educate me on what the hunger effect is let me know in the comments down below
as well excited I'd love to learn more we teach you guys some things it's time
for you guys to teach us some things anyways guys that'll do it for this
video I've been your host Jared Braunstein if you guys enjoyed the video
let us know about you miss a thumbs up share it with a friend and of course
make sure you are subscribed we'll see you guys in the next video