City pigeons are just as much a part of Gmunden as swans, but they are causing problems at the moment. They multiply too much. This not only means that their droppings dirty many places such as the bench in front of the SPAR on the Esplanade. The animals suffer too.
A population density that is too high, as in the Traunseestadt, leads to stress in the fight for food and nesting sites, to deficiency symptoms due to wrong food and to a number of transmissible viral and bacterial diseases.
The “pigeon pill” that inhibits fertility, as used by the city in the past, is no longer permitted in Austria. That’s why there is only one way to stop the increase and the help of the population is required: “Please stop feeding pigeons!” appeals the municipality. “Because feeding is the beginning of all evil.”
City pigeons are grain and seed eaters that visit green spaces and commute to fields, meadows and forests on the outskirts of town to find food. If you feed them in the city, they forget this natural behavior and greed for food from humans, which is usually anything but species-appropriate.
Source: Nachrichten
