Never mind the Melbourne Cup — try pigeon racing instead
IT MIGHT be all about horseracing today, but in Campbellfield a group of bird-lovers are celebrating their own racing passion.
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WHILE Melbourne Cup fans are preparing for the race that stops the nation, a group of bird-lovers in Campbellfield is celebrating a different kind of sport.
This year marks the Victorian Pigeon Racing Union’s 80th year of flying its favourite birds around the state.
Equipped with their own built-in GPS system, homing pigeons have the unique ability to find their way home from hundreds of kilometres away.
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When racers take a pigeon from its home loft and let it go somewhere it has never been before, it will circle in the sky for a while before navigating its way home.
The speed and distance covered by a pigeon is determined by a timing chip fitted to its leg.
Naturally, the fastest bird wins the race.
Victorian Pigeon Racing Union social club president Paul Burlak said some pigeons could race as far as 1100km.
“Some of them don’t come home, and others will take three days to come home because they can’t be bothered flying it all in one day,” he said.
The passionate Glenroy pigeon racer said the special homing instinct in pigeons remained a mystery since the birds were first used during wartime.
“It’s something in their brain that nobody has been able to work out,” he said.
“We focus on the soldiers who gave up their lives, but pigeons were always a big part of the wars too.
“It was the only way you could get messages across without people spying on you.”
The union is celebrating 80 years of pigeon racing on December 14 at Firenze Reception Centre, 134 McBride St, Fawkner. More than 100 members are expected to attend.
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