Video, 6 mins
How Do Pigeons Recognise Us?
University of Sheffield undergraduate bioscience students reveal the complex recognition skills of our city’s pigeons.
16 Jul 2026 09:00
Feral pigeons are a huge part of our towns and cities. They often go unnoticed, but they rely on us to survive in their urbanised world.
Here we investigate whether pigeons can recognise people based on the clothes we wear, shedding light on the cognitive skills of this underappreciated species.
Credits
- Presenter: Alice Butler (Zoology student at the University of Sheffield)
- Camera/Audio: Mae Cameron (Zoology student at the University of Sheffield)
- Camera/Audio: Martha Flind (Zoology student at the University of Sheffield)
- Director: Phoebe James (Zoology student at the University of Sheffield)
- Producer and Director: Katie Pile (Zoology student at the University of Sheffield)
- Interviewee: Ben Hatchwell (Professor of Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Sheffield)
- Interviewee: Jake Callaghan (Biology student at the University of Sheffield)