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An individual position in social hierarchy is the key mechanism, how an individual could gain a priority access to more quality food resources, find an attractive sexual partner to reproduce and find territory with low predation risk and maintain its fitness in total. Personality is supposed to be an important factor how an individuals keep their positions in social groups. The consistent individual variability in aggressive behaviour is closely related to the expression of melanin-based colouration and testosterone levels in blood. More explorative, aggressive, bolder and darker-coloured individuals are supposed to achieve higher dominance rank in social structures. But this prediction was barely tested. The main aims of this diploma thesis were: to find consistent individual variability in social and non-social context to confirm personality traits and to define connection between an individual variability in agonistic and explorative behaviour and melanin-based colouration in relation to social rank in experimental group of domestic pigeons (Columba liva f. domestica) under human care. Unfortunately, personality could not be defined and even more, there was no significant correlation between dominant position in social hierarchy and individual behavioural variability in social and non-social...

The thesis addresses issues related to the overbred population of feral pigeons (Columbia livia forma Domestica) in Czech towns. It approaches the subject from procedural, bureaucratic perspective. Specifically, the thesis examines the factors which affect the selection of methods of the feral pigeons' population regulation in four Czech towns: Special attention is devoted to the question whether the method of controlled city dovecotes, used to regulate pigeon populations, could come in useful in the Czech context. Research carried out for the thesis is qualitative; the data comes from semi-structured interviews with experts. Analysis of the collected data focuses on verification of authenticity of the provided information. Subsequently, effectiveness of cage entrapment, which considerably prevails over the other methods used, is considered in ethical, ecological, and economic respect. The thesis also surveys the health risk posed by the feral pigeon population to public and how views of the public concerning the issue affect the regulation process. The overall aim is to highlight the drawbacks of the decision making process, offer possible alternatives, and prompt more research.