Jetzt sind es einfach zu viele: Die Tauben vermehren sich in der Hauptstadt Kolumbiens rasend schnell, beflecken historische Gebäude mit ihrem Kot und gefährden die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung mit ihren Krankheiten. Eine Studie von Stadtbiologen hat ergeben, dass sich die Taubenpopulation des Hauptplatzes an Wochenenden auf 3'400 Vögel verdoppelt, da auch die Anzahl der Touristen, die die Denkmale besuchen, zunimmt. Die Regierung ist genervt und startet deshalb eine Kampagne gegen das Tauben-Füttern der Touristen.

Byline: Laura Zimmermann

Location: Bogota Kolumbien

Notes:

Bogota implores tourists to stop feeding pigeons

SHOTLIST:

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Bogota - 7 October 2018

1. Various of people playing with and feeding pigeons in Bogota's Plaza Bolivar

2. Statue of Simon Bolivar surrounded by pigeons

3. Man and woman feeding pigeons

4. Close of pigeons eating

5. Two girls feeding pigeons

6. Various of dozens of people feeding hundreds of pigeons in Plaza Bolivar

7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Camila Beltran, Colombian tourist:

"I think this is an environmental issue here in Bogota, they should have a bit more control and police control as well. I am not saying they should not allow it (feeding pigeons), but they should have a bit more control over the corn-throwing."

8. City workers preparing for a performance on not feeding pigeons

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Bogota - 3 October 2018

9. Clara Sandoval, Director of the Institute of Animal Welfare and Protection of Bogota City Hall standing in her office

10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Clara Sandoval, Director of the Institute of Animal Welfare and Protection of Bogota City Hall:

"What we want is to avoid this overpopulation of pigeons, in this moment in time specifically in the Plaza Bolivar, this concentration of pigeons. What we want is for the pigeons to go back to their natural behaviour, so that they can search for their own food, and for us citizens to be a part of this solution, of this response."

ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP CLIENTS ONLY

Bogota - 7 October 2018

11. Various of city employees doing a performance in Plaza Bolivar urging people to stop feeding pigeons

12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Mauricio Cano, biologist for City Hall in Bogota:

"The message to citizens is to ask them not to feed the pigeons, and this is because by feeding pigeons in the Plaza, we are making them sick. For example, here in the Plaza Bolivar, we are making them sick, they are getting sick because of the overpopulation. There is a large population of pigeons."

13. Various of children feeding pigeons

STORYLINE:

Colombian authorities have launched a campaign to discourage tourists from feeding pigeons in one of capital Bogota's most iconic areas.

On a bright Sunday afternoon, a group of government workers walked around Bogota's most famous square dressed as pigeons, with cardboard beaks covering their noses, as thousands of real birds swarmed overhead and left their droppings on stately monuments.

Flapping their plastic wings and performing brief skits, they urged curious pedestrians not to feed the large flocks that descend each day onto Plaza Bolivar, a grand colonial era square flanked by a Roman Catholic cathedral and Colombia's elegant congressional building.

While London has tried to scare unruly pigeons away from train stations by deploying menacing hawks, and Paris has employed contraceptive methods to limit flock sizes, Bogota's government is trying to fight pigeon overpopulation through educational campaigns that urge people not to feed them.

Officials believe that if people stop nourishing the birds, they will stop concentrating in public squares where their droppings sully historical buildings and put people's health at risk.

If the birds, which aren't native to Colombia, don't gather in large numbers their rate of reproduction is also likely to decrease.

A study conducted by city biologists found that the square's pigeon population doubles on weekends to 3,400 birds as the number of tourists who visit the square's iconic sites also swells.

But convincing people not to give the birds food has proven tricky.

Feeding pigeons corn and taking a photo with them in Bolivar Square has been something of a local tradition for decades.

It also sustains a dozen or so street vendors who sell small bags of pigeon feed for about 1 US dollar each.

Bogota's government is offering vendors like Portilla stalls in public buildings, so that they can sell snacks to office workers, instead of pigeon feed to tourists.

It's also offering job skills training children of vendors so that they have options other than following their parents into the business.

But some vendors say they haven't been included in the job placement programme.

And others are not convinced that selling snacks to humans will be as profitable as their current job.

Officials said they will eventually ban pigeon feed vendors from the square if they don't go voluntarily.

Type: Raw