this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
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"The Oaklander was unable to locate the pigeon for comment"

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[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

In much, maybe most of the current range, there were never truly wild rock doves for them to breed with, only feral domesticated pigeons.

I'm sure that there have been some cases of true wild rock doves accidentally or intentionally introduced to some areas, but in many more cases they're just descended from domesticated pigeons that got loose or were released. Over many generations, sure, many of them have lost a lot of the domesticated traits that they were bred for but aren't beneficial to life in the wild, but they're still genetically distinct from truly wild rock doves (although it can get murky where to draw the line, because feral pigeons have also been interbreeding with wild birds in their native range for probably as long as they've been domesticated)