Pigeons Race for $1 Million Dollars in South Africa

The Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race is the richest and biggest one loft pigeon race in the world. This year 3,082 pigeons from 20 countries around the world raced for US $1,000,000 in prize money.

The Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race is a competition that parallels the internationally known Sun City Million Dollar Golf Tournament that was established in 1981 and offered total prize money of one million dollars. The race which is the richest One-Loft Race in the world, finishes at Sun City the entertainment complex built by Sol Kersner on who’s golf courses the golfers play.

The winner of the 2009 race and $200,000 was East of Eden, who took just over nine and a quarter hours to complete the 552 kilometer flight from Trompsberg to Sun City. Only 352 of the starters finished within 24 hours The last bird home took six and a half days. No mention is made of how many pigeons didn’t make it back to Sun City.

• » See also: Mistaken Identity: Hunters Kill Endangered Pygmy Hippo During Pig Hunt!
• » Get EcoWorldly by RSS or sign up by email.

At the auction that follows the race East of Eden, a blue bar cock with pearl eyes, was sold for $6,000. The highest price of $24,000 for Good Aim was well down on prices at last year’s auction, where Birdy was sold for $80,000.

Pigeon racing traces its roots to the use of homing pigeons to carry messages before radio and telegraph. These birds are bread for speed strength and stamina and have recorded amazing feats such as a pigeon named Boomerang who was given by its owner to a friend in Algeciras, southern Spain, which promptly flew the 1,200 miles back home. Recently, after ten years away, Boomerang flew back to its original loft once again.

In One Loft races all pigeons are raised from 4 to 6 weeks old and trained at a single loft to allow a direct point to point race under identical conditions. The pigeons are even trained in the same way by the same person so the race tests the breeders skills directly.

Image credit: Alan D. Wilson from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license.

Tweet This Post