Domestic pigeons have surprising cultural significance. They inspired Charles Darwin in his thinking about evolution, delivered wartime messages to save lives, and have symbolic meaning around the world.
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For now though, Outer Hebridean rock doves represent the “wildest” (having the least feral pigeon ancestry) known contemporary population in the world. Foraging in meadows and roosting in sea caves, they have, against scientists’ expectations, escaped the impacts of domestication. This is probably because pigeon keeping has always been rare in the Outer Hebrides, and few feral pigeons make it across the sea from mainland Britain.
