While wandering around London Zoo the other day, I got to see many exotic animals both known and unknown, such as the Sumatran Tiger and the Potoroo, which are now endangered and which are are at least partly (and quite rightly) being kept from extinction by their presence in their zoo.

It’s funny though: as beautiful as these endangered animals are, it was the scruffy pigeons which bothered me as I ate a hotdog who have been the more successful in adapting to human influence, thriving as feral animals where other species have been inadvertently killed off. Natural selection doesn’t care what looks good or impressive: all that matters is what survives. And the pigeon, despite their less than grand appearance, are very good at doing that.