Ever seen a pigeon pecking away at a chip bag on the pavement and thought, "there's so much more you could be doing with your talents, Mr Pigeon?" You're not alone. Plume Labs and DigitasLBi are using pigeons to tackle air pollution.
The Pigeon Air Patrol is a flock of ten pigeons equipped with pollution-monitoring backpacks anchored by tiny vests - allowing real-time analysis of the air quality.
All this week in London, you can tweet your location to @PigeonAir and get an instant reply from the pigeons, telling you about the air pollution levels where you are. Handy if you or your DC suffer with asthma or any other respiratory conditions, or if you're just concerned about air pollution levels.
The pigeons will only be in London. Apologies to non-Londoners: please instead enjoy these picture of the pigeons looking fetching in their vests.
But if you are in London and you fancy having a pigeon tweet you with your local air quality readings this may not be an entirely accurate description of what happens please get on and tweet your local area (e.g. Hampstead, Brixton, Hackney) to @PigeonAir and let us know what happens.
NB these are homing pigeons, lovingly cosseted by top pigeon-fanciers, and a vet has been involved at all stages of the project.
Love
MNHQ xx
Edit: We've amended the Twitter handle. The correct one is @PigeonAir but previously we used @PigeonPatrol
Thanks,
MNHQ