No, the chicken pigeon hybrid does not exist.
Despite numerous videos on TikTok & YouTube which claim to be of chicken/pigeon hybrid creatures these all consist of unusual breeds of pigeon that look a bit ‘chicken-like’ such as the Modena, Maltese & Runt pigeons.
Pigeons and chickens are genetically incompatible so cannot breed.
Chicken Pigeon Hybrids on TikTok and YouTube
Videos of the “Chigeon” originated on the Chinese-run social media network called “TikTok” and the original creators of the chicken pigeon hybrid videos stated in their bio that their videos were satire.
They made it very clear that what you were seeing was not real. They were copying the format that was popularized by the “Onion,” who would also frequently feature faux news stories for giggles.
Other people on TikTok and especially on YouTube, have taken the Chigeon videos and posted them as if they were real.
@officialtiktokscience Why did I make #Chigeon / #Picken? Farm life — 🐓🐣🍗 #pigeon #fy
This has helped spread the rumor that the chicken pigeon hybrid is real.
The “evidence” on YouTube is that of chicken species that often have heads similar to that of a pigeon. However, it is nothing more than a purely visual thing. The chicken looks a little like a pigeon, just like others have been bred to look a little like parrots and even like an ostrich.
Some of these breeds include unusual-looking pigeon breeds such as the Maltese pigeon..
@fancylove34 brown bar Maltese pigeon. please like and comments. thanks
♬ original sound – fancy
and the Modena pigeon..
@naeemroyallpigeon Modena Pigeon #naeemroyalpigeon #pigeon #pigeons #pigeonturkey #pigeonracingsecrets #pigeonlovervr #pigeonslover09 #pigeondefenceleague ♬ original sound – Naeem Royal Pigeon
What is a little more, unsettling, is that people have filmed male pigeons being mated (by hand) with chickens.
This they claim is proof of the chicken pigeon hybrid origin but is in fact a massive misunderstanding of how birds operate.
If you have ever owned a male budgie, you will know it is willing to “get it on” with anything it lays its beady eye on.
It is no different from male dogs trying to hump your leg. Just because something is willing to mate, it doesn’t mean it can produce offspring with what it mates with.
The Chances of a Chicken Pigeon Hybrid Are Statistically Insignificant?
To echo the thoughts in the introduction, if we accept that the universe exists in an infinite state, then by definition we have to accept that anything is possible. With that being the case, it is possible for a chicken pigeon hybrid to exist, but it is very unlikely.
In the book “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (no relation to the movie of the same name), Nassim states how it is possible for his mug to jump off his desk.
He states that since every atom is moving within the mug, then it is possible for each atom to jump upwards at the same time, creating enough momentum to lift the coffee cup off his desk.
Though this is possible, it is so unlikely that it can be disregarded as a possibility. The same principle exists for the chicken pigeon hybrid.
The Jigsaw Puzzle That Doesn’t Work
If you look at the matter from that of genetics, you can see just how difficult it would be for a chicken to breed successfully with a pigeon. It would be like trying to take two different 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles and trying to fit all the pieces together in a way that creates a fully-formed image.
The idea that chickens and pigeons could breed is based on how similar the breeds are and look. Some pigeons look more like chickens than pigeons.
For example, the Florentine and the Maltese pigeon may at first glance look like a chicken and these breeds could help fuel rumors that chicken/pigeon hybrids exist.
If however, you strip the feathers from a pigeon, a small chicken, a pheasant and a quail, you cut off their head, feet and wings, and place them all together on a baking tray, other than comparative size, they all look very similar.
Yet genetically they are just too far removed from each other, the same is true of seagull and pigeon hybrids and parrots and pigeons and most other bird species.
Similar features and even being the same type of animal doesn’t matter when it comes to genetics.
Did you know that humans share almost 70 percent of their genome with acorn worms?
Humans and chimps share 98.8% percent of their DNA, and yet we will never breed.
We are just too different to ever interbreed. The same is true of the chicken and the pigeon.
Where Did the Chicken and Pigeon Hybrid Idea Start?
It started in the kitchen. Ancient peoples were known to eat pigeons long before they were domesticated or pigeon farming had begun in earnest.
Unlike pork and seafood, there was little risk of dangerous food poisoning for earlier and primitive humans.
During World War One, so many carrier pigeons were being eaten by troops that it became a court-martial offense to eat them (something with so much gravitas that a whole episode of Blackadder Goes Forth is based on a court-martial trial for the shooting and eating of Speckled Jim!).
Pigeons have plump breasts like chickens and look like chickens when plucked and dressed.
If you were to ask what does pigeon taste like, many would reply game-y chicken. It is easy to see how the idea of both being related could become popular.
Will We Ever See a Chicken Pigeon Hybrid?
Even if the birds were genetically engineered, so much would have to be changed that the birds wouldn’t look like chickens or pigeons.
In addition, neither a pigeon or chicken is built to carry and successfully produce the other’s eggs.
Not to mention the fact that the maturation process within the egg would need the sort of intervention that we cannot yet achieve with modern technology.
In short, we will see the return of the woolly mammoth before we see the chicken pigeon hybrid.
