Elisabeth Torres, Global Animal
Never mind the battle for the number one spot between Nadal and Djokovic, the spotlight of the French Open has officially been stolen by the birds. Apparently so many pigeon droppings have been landing on the court they are effecting play on the clay courts. Balls bounce differently off the slimy droppings and they are just plain gross to deal with.
Officials were so fed up with the bird excrements that they tried to scare the birds away with noise over the loud speakers, but to no avail. Finally they decided to bring eight falcons to Roland Garros in hopes the predator birds will get rid of the pigeons. Falconer Ludwig Verschatse said his birds didn’t actually kill any pigeons, just scared them away from the stadium. Verschatse plans to stay through the final matches because “pigeons are stupid. They don’t transmit the information to their friends.” We beg to differ. Pigeons are incredibly intelligent, and can easily travel thousands of miles and return home without any guidance by detecting the earth’s magnetic field with their beaks.
New York had a similar problem with pigeon droppings in the subway earlier this year, and solved it by simply playing the sounds of predator birds around subway entrances.
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