A few months ago my youngest daughter, a veterinary student, told me that we humans would have abandoned pigeons. We would have domesticated them so we could eat them more simply, then we used them as messengers and eventually abandoned them. That's why pigeons come in large numbers around humans, in squares and parks, in the memory of an old relationship and friendship interrupted by the emergence of modern means of communication. Humanity has divorced them, so to speak.

As I know my daughter with a lot of passion and love for animals, but also for romanced stories, I didn't take what she told me too seriously. But I recently came across some articles (such as: Why Are There So Many Pigeons?) pleading for justice or at least understanding for the pigeons annoying us so much in our large cities.

Indeed, say scientists, 10,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, a wild bird species was lured by the food offered to human settlements. This is how doves got domesticated. Later they were widely used in navigation on the Mediterranean and as couriers between medieval cities.

Since then, unlike most other birds, pigeons have adapted best to our way of being and especially of eating. They eat almost everything we eat. Even fast food now.

So, we don't need them anymore: poultry is tastier, we communicate instantly by mobile phone, not by notes, and we sail the oceans with GPS. But they don't know that yet so they keep coming to us.

Those who plead for understanding for pigeons encourage us to take the positive side: watching them, observing them would be particularly relaxing, some scientists claim. Let's try it. Maybe it will help us relieve some of the stress of big cities.