Inès Zeghloul with Laura Laplaud / Photo credit: Fred Bukajlo – Capa Pictures
For 12 years, the organizers of the Roland-Garros tournament have used falcons to scare away unwanted birds such as pigeons. But these raptors do not fly over the courts during matches – and are therefore not visible to visitors – they are deployed at dawn.
At Roland-Garros, pigeons are a real scourge. Dirty stands, troublemakers during matches… For 12 years, the French Tennis Federation has declared war on pigeons and other birds. To get rid of it, everything was imagined as the installation of peaks, the diffusion of strident sounds. But what has shown its effectiveness the most: the use of a feathered squadron, capable of eradicating the majority of the annoying birds that parade around the site.
“The Big Terror of Pigeons”
With its beak and keen eye, which scans the heights of Philippe-Chatrier, Michael’s falcon can easily scare away other birds. “It’s the big terror of pigeons at Roland-Garros”, he says at the microphone of Europe 1. Falconer of the Roland-Garros tournament for two years, Michael holds on his arm a Harris Hawk, nicknamed the small Mexican eagle due to its distribution and some resemblance to the Golden Eagle.
To win a war against the pigeons, Michael deploys his birds on center court to scare away the birds. “Scaring makes pigeons believe that a predator is permanently on site. It therefore pushes them to look elsewhere if they are calmer”, he continues. Unfortunately, the spectacle of these birds of prey in full flight will not be visible to visitors: the hawks prowl above the courts from dawn and dusk.