Bavarian Pigeon Corps

The Bavarian Pigeon Corps (or Bavarian Pigeon Fleet) was a fleet of carrier pigeons used to transmit messages or fitted with miniature breast-mounted cameras for intelligence gathering by the Bavarian Army. Use of the pigeons for message transmission and aerial reconnaisance in European theatres of operation began during the early 1900s, a time when Bavaria made up a part of the German Empire.
Messages were attached to the pigeons' legs. The miniature 70 mm camera as "whole battalions" of the trained pigeons flew behind enemy lines. The tips of the birds' wings were often visible in the images, but this method of aerial photography—an early form of remote sensing<ref nameZoo/>—was nevertheless preferred over the use of balloons and kites, which were relatively unreliable and easily shot down. The pigeons did not always follow the desired flight path however, and were themselves sometimes shot down for food.<ref nameZoo/> Use of the pigeons for reconnaissance missions was abandoned after the enemy discovered that the birds carried cameras, and so began to shoot them out of the air.<ref name=FBI/>
Although mostly used for military and spying purposes, the pigeons were introduced to the public at the 1909 Dresden International Photographic Exhibition. Aerial photographs taken from above the exhibition and presented as postcards were popular items among those in attendance.<ref name=papa/>
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