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Bird Named Joe: Why a Pigeon that Narrowly Escaped Death in Australia is Making News
The racing pigeon, first spotted in late Dec. 2020, appears to have made an extraordinary 13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile) Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to Australia.
(Photo: Channel 9 via AP)
Australia had declared Joe- the pigeon- a biodecurity threat and had ordered its killing, but a last minute revelation saved its life.
Last Updated:January 15, 2021, 19:19 IST
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The pigeon that faced death sentence in Australia after being declared a biosecurity risk got a reprieve after a US bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake. The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on December 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the US state of Oregon, 3,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away, two months earlier.
Credit: AP
A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk after it flew into the country from the USA has been spared death because it did not, in fact, fly between the two countries.
Discovered in a garden in Melbourne, the bird s leg band suggested the racing pigeon had flown 8,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Oregon in the US.
On that basis, Australian authorities said they considered the marathon flier a disease risk and planned to kill it.
But experts at the American Racing Pigeon Union have now claimed the band is counterfeit and not traceable .
The pigeon has attracted the attention of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service Credit: Channel 9/AP
A pigeon declared a biosecurity risk after flying to Melbourne from the United States may get a reprieve after an American bird organisation declared its identifying leg band was fake.