A plucky pigeon that flew across the Pacific Ocean from Japan will
be bred by a bird lover in Canada hoping its progeny will make top
long-distance racers, an animal rescue official said.
The pigeon was discovered tired and thin at a Canadian air force
base on Vancouver Island in westernmost Canada and taken to an
animal rescue centre near Comox, British Columbia where it was
treated for a common bird parasite and nursed back to health.
"We believe it took off from land in Japan and got confused or got
caught up in a storm and got lost before eventually hopscotching
its way to Canada, stopping and sleeping on freighters along the
way," the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society's Reg Westcott told AFP
on Monday.
The one-year-old bird was among roughly 8,000 race pigeons released
on May 9 in Hokkaido, northern Japan, for a
1,000-kilometer (600-mile) race, according to owner Hiroyasu
Takasu.
The pedigree bird was among 10 racers owned by the retired
businessman, 73, an avid hobbyist.
"I have never heard of pigeons going to Canada. It's incredible,"
Takasu told AFP.
A pigeon's top range is typically 650 kilometers. This one
travelled around 7,000 kilometers.
Canadians contacted Takasu, whose telephone number was on a tag
attached to the bird's leg.
He decided not to have the pigeon flown back aboard a commercial
jetliner, fearing that the travel back home might kill it unless it
receives food, water and appropriate care.
The local Pigeon Racing Society in western Canada offered to take
in the wayward bird and set it up with some female birds.
"I'm sure his offspring would be very good long range racers,"
Westcott said.
Canadian authorities, however, initially weren't sure what could be
done with the pigeon.
"They asked us whether he had travel documents and so on, and we
said, 'No, he flew here on his own,' and so they labelled it a
migratory bird, which allowed us to hand it over, without (having
to fill out) a bunch of customs paperwork, to the local pigeon
racing society, which offered to give it a new home," Westcott
said.
Takasu, who was willing to share the bird's pedigree papers, said
he would be pleased if the pigeon found a new life on the other
side of the Pacific.
"I would very much appreciate it if there is someone over there who
could care for it," Takasu said.
In his 17 years caring for injured wildlife, Westcott said he has
only come across one other pigeon that made the incredible two or
three week voyage across the Pacific Ocean.
That one landed on a Canadian Coast Guard ship at the height of the
avian influenza pandemic that saw millions of birds slaughtered to
prevent the spread of the disease, and was eventually sent back to
Japan at the owner's
