bagel pigeon toronto

Bagel pigeon could be Toronto's answer to the famous NYC pizza rat

Toronto may be a bustling urban mass of concrete, steel, brick, asphalt, and a whole lot of glass, but wildlife is never too far away.

Some animals adapt and thrive in these urban conditions, living and salvaging off humans to the point they're hardly considered wildlife anymore. It's been captured all too hilariously with instances of raccoons stealing food delivery orders off of porches and even a squirrel dashing down the road with a 7-Eleven taquito in tow.

But there's a new candidate in the battle to be Toronto's official food-toting animal. Enter Bagel Pigeon.

In a video shared with blogTO, Instagram user Ashley Vols captured a pigeon just casually chilling at the southeast corner of Simcoe and Richmond at approximately 4:20 p.m. on Thursday. Okay, let me be more specific. It was a pigeon wearing a bagel.

Three other pigeons stand close by as if on guard, protecting their carbohydrate-caped comrade.

"I think it was an everything bagel," Vols tells blogTO. This would be completely understandable as a pigeon's preference for bagel variety, as it's basically seasoned with birdseed.

While one could interpret the video as a pigeon stuck inside a hollowed-out bagel, Vols claims that the bird "had no interest in moving nor getting free from the bagel, and I have the mind that it intentionally put that bagel around its neck for safe keeping."

Pigeons are known as prolific scavengers, but seeing one of these winged rats wearing a bagel like some edible baked brassiere for later consumption just shows how creative they can be.

City-dwelling animals persevering by stealing human food are often unexpected social media darlings, making unlikely stars like New York City's famous Pizza Rat.

Like the great Jeff Goldblum famously said in the Jurassic Park franchise's first (and only watchable) instalment, "life, uhh, finds a way."

Lead photo by

Ashley Vols


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