Ten birds of prey enlisted in permanent service to keep pigeons and their corrosive guano away from the archaeological excavations of Pompeii
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Gianna goes out in the evening to guard the archaeological excavations of PompeiHe is an attentive and efficient soldier, called to control the territory and defend the Pompeian houses from pigeon droppings.
During the lockdown for the Covid emergency in 2020, the closure of the Park favored the nesting of an excessive number of pigeons, which they drove the other species away and endangered the archaeological remains with their guano, which is particularly corrosive and can also cause irreversible damage to the architectural elements of the ancient city.
The Archaeological Park of Pompeii is a fragile heritage, to be protected by restoring the balance of all the elements that compose it, as explained by the architect Paolo Mighetto, an official of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
“A component which is precisely the archaeological, mineral one, the bricks, the stones, all the material part, everything that this architecture has undergone, with earthquakes, eruptions and so on. And then there is a natural component, which is the component made up of greenery, plants and also animals, from ourselves, who are components of this heritage”, says Mighetto.
The excavations of Pompeii bring to mind archaeology, art, history, and yet this is a real natural park where maintaining the balance of animal and plant species is important at least as much as the preservation of the remains of the ancient city.
This is how birds of prey chase pigeons away from the archaeological park
To drive away the approximately 2,000 pigeons that had made the ancient city of Pompeii their home during the lockdown period, birds of prey were hired, trained to find pigeons in their nests inside the domus and to drive them away through the simulation of hunting movements. Buzzards, saker falcons and peregrine falcons form a team of ten birds of prey that for two years have been patrolling three or more times a week to drive away invasive and harmful species, such as pigeons, magpies and crows.
A team of four falconers trains the birds of prey in identifying the species to be chased away and in simulating a predatory action, which must just scare the other birds away. An activity made necessary by the particular nature of pigeons.
“The pigeon tends to reproduce and infest environments exponentiallygoing to occupy all these niches and environments that we go to find in the evening during our interventions”, says Paola Barile, biotechnologist and falconer, field manager of the project.
“Balances are re-established within habitats. If the presence of invasive species can lead to an impoverishment of biodiversity, with our work we are able to re-establish a balance and therefore other species are able to settle and reproduce peacefully”, added Barile.
Falconry was also practiced by the ancient inhabitants of Pompeii. Today it is an ecological method that respects the environment and animals, even those that the soldier Gianna helps to keep away from the precious archaeological remains.
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