Pigeons monitor air quality

Pigeons in California will begin to monitor air quality, with a little help from the folks at the University of California, Irvine.

"The birds will carry miniature backpacks equipped with a global positioning system monitor, pollution sensors, and cell phone transmitting equipment that can send the data directly to a blog where it is overlaid on Google maps. Visitors then can roll over the maps and learn about air pollution in the area."

But of course, there are critics in the form of animal rights activists who say this can't be good for the pigeons. They could get injured or too tired.

Despite pigeon fatigue, I'm interested in finding out more about the data recovered about air pollution and the possibilities of widening the scope to include air quality pigeons in cities world wide.

AP via ENN.