"Beat & Release": Pigeons Released but Earthquake Damage Leads Them Astray

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 17 May 2023)

                      "Hey, which way to Diyarbakır?!"

Every year in the month of March in Diyarbakır there is a pigeon race, 

such that pigeons are released from another area and race back to 

Diyarbakır.  This year 650 pigeons were released from Kayseri, all of 

them with chips on their legs to mark their locations along the way. 

However (!), this year many of them did not return to Diyarbakır as 

expected, with some of them straying off course to Syria, Gaziantep

and Malatya.  Serhat Çağlı, head of the Diyarbakır office of the Turkey

Pigeon Federation, explained that "many of our birds did not return from

where they were released and the reason is that the earthquake destroyed

many of their landmarks.  Every time there is an earthquake our birds

get lost."