Price paid for pigeon scales the heights
HALLE, Belgium: A Chinese pigeon racing fan using the pseudonym Super Duper has paid a world record price of ¤1.6 million ($NZ2.76 million) for a Belgianbred bird.
Twoyearold hen New Kim was the focus of a twoweek auction.
During a frantic last halfhour, two Chinese bidders drove up the price by ¤280,000 which eclipsed the previous record that Belgianbred Armando fetched last year by ¤350,000.
Retiring breeder Gaston Van de Wouwer put all the birds from his coop up for auction and the overall sale was closing in on ¤5 million.
Belgians have long stood out as the best breeders because of their generations of experience and the density of a network where many breeders can organise races close together.
China often features oneloft racing, where pigeons get used to one coop for months and then are released many hundreds of kilometres away to make their way back using their unique sense of orientation. — AAP