Some people juggle geese. Others bowl pigeons.

October 1, 2016 8:08 PM

The Parlor Roller is a breed of domesticated pigeon that have been selectively bred for their ability to perform somersaults on the ground. Competitions with these non-flying birds involve pigeon rolling for distance.
posted by fings (23 comments total)

This seems problematical to me, along the lines of waltzing mice and fainting goats ... it seems a little unfair to deliberately breed an animal specifically for a trait that impacts their quality of life to some extent, and is for no purpose other than "humans think it looks funny".
posted by The otter lady at 8:17 PM on October 1, 2016 [17 favorites]

This sounds like the endgame of Hannibal Lecter talking about how you can't breed two deep-roller pigeons, except he was wrong.
posted by figurant at 8:44 PM on October 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

That's kinda fucked up, to be honest. Breed a bird so instead of being able to fly, it just flops about on the ground in a stereotyped manner? Then make a game out of the result, where people make them do this intentionally-deformed behavior as much as possible just for their amusement?

This is to bird breeding as the Ortolan is to poultry-based cuisine.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:59 PM on October 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

Anyone have the genetic explanation for this? We had a dwarf hamster which compulsively turned backflips, and I wonder if the reasons we're similar.

Also: it's probably a good thing pigeons don't puke
posted by gusandrews at 9:27 PM on October 1, 2016

Wow. I NEVER would have believed this if you hadn't provided videos. I guess I learn something new everyday.
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 9:32 PM on October 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine wrote about this on facebook, and I was like "this can't be for real, can it?" And when I found out that it was, I felt compelled to make a post. People are weird.
posted by fings at 9:38 PM on October 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

This seems horrendously cruel and wrong
posted by greenhornet at 9:47 PM on October 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

This is disturbing to watch
posted by not_the_water at 11:19 PM on October 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

This seems problematical to me, along the lines of waltzing mice and fainting goats ...

Regular mice will "waltz" too if they get an ear infection. When I used to work with lab mice, we'd see it routinely. We called them "spinners". They run around in tight circles at top speed, seemingly for hours, as if possessed. My facetious explanation was that ear infections disrupt the mouse vestibular system, making them feel as if the room is spinning, so they have to spin along with it just to stay in one place.
posted by dephlogisticated at 12:59 AM on October 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

oh no Busto what have you done this time
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:21 AM on October 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

The movement disability suffered by Parlor tumblers is severe. They are affected by a total inability to fly, and therefore the ability to escape from fear in the normal way for pigeons. The seizure-like somersaulting on the ground may cause severe disorientation and distress. Injuries from this totally unnatural method of movement, of rolling over the ground, are also likely.
posted by Lanark at 1:55 AM on October 2, 2016 [4 favorites]

yea wow this is really sad. Not fond of seeing animal abuse here.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:02 AM on October 2, 2016 [5 favorites]

This feels like pug breeders who have decided to up their game and try to aggressively breed for Brachycephalic syndrome in order to see whose dog can make the most amusing whistling noise while trying to breathe.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:47 AM on October 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

As someone who loves their pet bird very much I simply cannot watch this video. Also, sorry to see animal abuse show up here.
posted by kinnakeet at 3:41 AM on October 2, 2016 [5 favorites]

That's an incredibly specific and silly reason to breed an animal.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:13 AM on October 2, 2016

It took me longer to convince Greer that I hadn't just written the wiki article - than her accepting real.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 4:53 AM on October 2, 2016

Presumably, this pigeon behaviour began as an evolutionary adaptation with no input from humans at all. Clearly, the owners' selective breeding has exaggerated that behaviour to an extreme form since then. But what was the evolutionary advantage that set pigeons on this road in the first place?
posted by Paul Slade at 5:01 AM on October 2, 2016

Birmingham Rollers will do the same thing in flight.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:07 AM on October 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I was prepared to see animals having fun deciding to do fun things, but it looks like a panic response to being flipped over backwards.
posted by amtho at 5:26 AM on October 2, 2016

Not everything is adaptive, Paul Slade. Organisms aren't designed, and they're not perfect. This seems much more likely to be exploiting a maladaptive trait, a bug in the code so to speak. Selective breeding has enhanced and emphasized that bug, and made it universal within the population. It's a classic evolutionary fallacy to think that just because a trait exists it must be adaptive.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:41 AM on October 2, 2016 [6 favorites]

If you think this is messed up just wait til you hear what they do to chickens.
posted by CarolynG at 7:41 AM on October 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

The pigeon wouldn't be having this tantrum if you'd just let it drive the bus.

C'mon, just once around the block.
posted by dr_dank at 10:55 AM on October 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

dephlogistated, there are also Spinner Mice, which are deliberately genetically mutated to have hearing loss (to be used as study subjects), and as a side effect, constantly spin around. :(
posted by holyrood at 6:18 PM on October 2, 2016