Happy Pigeon Appreciation Day!
Okay, I know it sounds strange to celebrate pigeons – the animal best known for gathering in large numbers, causing a raucous, as well as perching and pooping on just about everything. For just a moment though, I would like to consider the unique athletic attributes of these popcorn and park loving birds vs humans engaged in endurance exercise.
Have you ever heard of pigeon racing (photo above)? In this 200+ year-old sport, homing pigeons are released from an unfamiliar location between 95-700 km away from home and the time it takes for them to fly a certain distance is recorded. The goal is for the pigeon to reach a speed of at least 70 km/h and, of course, to fly faster than other birds. Similar to human racing, the fastest flying bird is declared the winner.
Like other animals bred for athletics, homing pigeons are bred with speed, ability to quickly locate their home (spatial orientation), as well as endurance in mind.
The pectoralis muscles of a racing pigeon are huge and can make up about 11% of their total body weight. These large muscles are able to power up to 95% of the energy needed for racing and other flights. Flapping flight requires a lot more energy than running exercises. To support such high demands, pigeon muscles rely almost entirely on fat metabolism, whereas mammals rely almost entirely on carbohydrates for endurance exercise.
A recent study examined muscles from a mix of Columba livia pigeons that never trained for racing and trained birds that had just raced 300km. The researchers found 171 downregulated and 330 upregulated protein-encoding transcripts in the racing birds compared to untrained birds. Upregulated genes in racing birds included those involved with fatty acid metabolism, mitochondrial function, and muscle remodeling – changes that would favor such endurance exercise in a bird.
Similar to racing pigeons, researchers found changes in over 650 proteins in humans trained to perform endurance exercise. The majority of the changes were seen in proteins related to mitochondrial function. In contrast, strength training did not result in very many changes in protein expression.
These findings show that endurance exercise can literally transform muscles and metabolism in both avian and human athletes.
Source
Stefaniuk-Szmukier M, Szmatola T, Pustelnik A, Ropka-Molik K. First transcriptomic insight into the working muscles of racing pigeons during a competition flight. Molecular Biology Reports. 51: 625, 2024.
Emanuelsson EB, Arif M, Reitzner SM, Perez S, Lindholm ME, Mardinoglu A, Daub C, Sundberg CJ, Chapman MA. Remodeling of the human skeletal muscle proteome found after long-term endurance training but not after strength training. iScience. 21(1): 108638, 2023.
Categories: Comparative Physiology, Diet and Exercise, Exercise, Extreme Animals, Nature's Solutions
Tags: endurance exercise, Exercise, fitness, health, medicine, nutrition, training, wellness
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 