Inherited Fear

Jack Prescott
Feathered World, UK, April 2000

A recent visitor to my loft noticed the mass nervousness if my pigeons when a Sparrowhawk came briefly into their fly patch. He had noticed that his own young Tipplers, even at a very early age, seemed to recognise Kestrels and Sparrowhawks and show signs of nervousness when one of these birds of prey flew over the loft. 'It is remarkable,' said he, 'that such young ones show fear at six weeks old or less, never having had any experience.'

It is equally remarkable that, even after fairly regular sightings of such hawks, during routine daily exercises, my own pigeons do become very nervous when they spot a hawk. It becomes more difficult to understand when my own pigeons have never been subjected to an attack by any kind of hawk.

As I sit, watching my large kit of high flying Tumblers, I often notice that they very suddenly tighten up their formation, fly faster and veer further away, mostly gaining a lot of extra height. Sometimes a few of them will bolt out of the kit for a few minutes. I know straight away what is wrong, they have spotted a Kestrel or a Sparrowhawk. I get up from my chair and search. Sure enough - there goes the culprit, often 1,000 feet away from the kit and in no way bothering my birds. However, they have recognised and identified a hawk, even though its size and general appearance is not much different to a crow or a pigeon at that range.

After exercise, when my pigeons are assembled on the loft top, suddenly, all 56 of them will freeze and stare with just one tilted eye, in one direction, showing nervousness and sometimes exploding into flight. Sure enough they have spotted a hawk, sometimes passing at a good distance. This, I could understand if my birds had been subjected to an attack.

Obviously then, it is an inherited fear. Their ancestors had to cope with the threat and what has been 'imprinted' so deeply, cannot be so easily erased. We humans do not like to be alone in the darkness. We have a fear of the unknown and there are places where we don't like to be in the dark. Who would camp out all night, alone, in and old, remote graveyard? We all know that there is nothing to be frightened of , but we have and inherited fear, in a way related to the hawk/pigeon syndrome.

In passing I'll tell you about a relative of mine who lives in Banbury. He specialised in the restoration of old buildings. He accepted such a job in the upper reaches of an ancient and very remote church. The job was to take several weeks and he had to work on his own, to make the job pay. After a few days he became stressed and nervous. There was a definite hostile and frightening atmosphere, up aloft among the decay, the ancient dust and the incredible echoes and minute sound amplifications. There seems to be a radiation from ancient tombs, ancient paintings, ancient buildings, ancient carvings, etc, especially if a person is alone and the light is poor. The situation was so disturbing that this young man had to abandon the job. Inherited fear of the unknown? No real logic in it, but who will say that it does not exist?

As I've said, 'what has been so absolutely imprinted from pre-historic times, cannot be so easily erased by several years of cultivation - or education.' It is not that I regard this highly-strung and unaccountable nervousness as a bad thing in my own pigeons. Very often a sluggish exercise is converted into a better spectacle by the appearance of a harmless Kestrel or Sparrowhawk. It livens the kit up - gets them 'revving up' so to speak.

All the best high flying and performing pigeons that I have ever kept, were of an excitable, alert and rather highly-strung character, and with excellent escape techniques. There was only one exception - the Polish Orliks or Ukrainesky Cutters. Very calm they were, but I was never very happy with them, you know.