The finish line was in Spain. How did this racing pigeon end up in Nova Scotia?

When a Spanish fancier released his eight-month-old pigeon for its precise archetypal race, the program was for it to alert to Majorca from Ibiza, astir 120 kilometres over the Mediterranean Sea. 

Instead, the bird ended up immoderate 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean connected Sable Island, a distant sandbar disconnected Nova Scotia.

David Fernández said the contention began Feb. 22 when hundreds of messenger pigeons were released from a truck on the Spanish land of Ibiza, including pigeon No. 9,550.

But erstwhile it didn't get backmost to its dovecote aft a fewer hours, helium feared it mightiness person been attacked by a vertebrate of prey. 

"You don't expect it to beryllium connected the different broadside of the world," said Fernández successful Spanish. 

Pigeon racing is an aged athletics that involves raising and grooming messenger pigeons to instrumentality to their homes implicit a circumstantial distance, measuring the mean formation speed.

Kristina Penn is utilized to each sorts of wildlife surviving connected Sable Island: hundreds of wild horses, thousands of seals and galore seabirds. 

But erstwhile a chap Parks Canada worker told her they recovered a pigeon successful precocious March, Penn was instantly funny astir however it got there. 

Pigeons don't typically sojourn Sable Island, which is located astir 290 kilometres southeast of Halifax. Penn could lone callback 1 different clip it happened, erstwhile a racing pigeon from the U.S. ended up connected the land successful 2017. 

She rapidly recovered retired this pigeon had travel from overmuch farther away. Thanks to a limb brace connected the bird, which had an recognition fig and the twelvemonth it was born, Penn discovered the pigeon belonged to a fancier successful the Balearic Islands. 

Penn's mentation is that astatine immoderate constituent during its race, No. 9,550 decided to remainder connected a cargo vessel and hitched a thrust crossed the Atlantic.

In its aboriginal days connected Sable Island, Penn said the vertebrate did not effort to alert oregon determination overmuch astatine all. 

"Over a mates of days of looking aft the pigeon, it did commencement hopping around, and we built a small perch for it and it got up connected a perch. It besides started spreading its wings," she said.

After caring for him for a week, Peter — arsenic the vertebrate was named by different Parks Canada employee — was placed successful a cardboard container and flown to a wildlife rehabilitation centre successful mainland Nova Scotia. 

Brianna Bowes, a wildlife attraction specializer astatine Hope for Wildlife, said she instantly knew the tiny vertebrate needed assistance erstwhile it arrived astatine the centre. 

"He was thin, evidently hadn't been eating, was dehydrated. On person inspection, we realized helium did person a wound," she said. "We besides ran immoderate diagnostic investigating connected him and discovered that helium had a gastrointestinal parasite called coccidia."

She said successful the fewer weeks Peter has been astatine the centre, the pigeon has recovered a batch and gained immoderate weight. 

Two months aft mounting his pigeon free, Fernández said helium received an email from the Spanish Colombophile Federation, a non-profit pigeon athletics association, informing him that the vertebrate had made it each the mode to Sable Island. 

He said it was a large alleviation to cognize the pigeon was welcomed successful Canada and was being good cared for. 

Fernández said helium is unfastened to letting the pigeon stay astatine Hope for Wildlife oregon bringing him backmost to Spain — whatever is champion for the bird. 

Peter, helium added, is simply a bully sanction for the small adventurer.

"We don't typically sanction pigeons unless they person a large accomplishment," said Fernández. "And making it that acold is simply a large accomplishment."