Pigeon Sets New Record After She's Sold For More Than £1.4m

A racing pigeon has set a new world record after she was sold at auction for more than £1.4 million.

New Kim, from Belgium, was originally put up for auction for just €200 (£179.45) but ended up in the centre of an intense bidding war, which saw the final selling price reaching a whopping €1.6 million (£1,437,583).

According to reports, there was a frantic last half-hour which saw a couple of Chinese bidders - using the names Super Duper and Hitman - bringing the price up by €280,000 (£251,000).

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Super Duper ended up with the winning bid and is now the proud owner of New Kim.

Speaking to Reuters, the bird's breeder and former owner Kurt Van de Wouwer said he and his family were 'in shock' after hearing the news. I bet they were.

He said: "The only thing I can see is we are in total shock."

Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, the CEO and founder of the auction house Pipa, told Reuters: "These record prices are unbelievable, because this is a female.

"Usually a male is worth more than a female because it can produce more offspring."

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The price smashed the previous record holder, set by another Belgian bird, this one named Armando, who sold for around €350,000 (£314,000) less.

Earlier this year, a sheep broke UK records after he sold for £367,550 at auction.

The six-month old Texel ram - who had the rather fabulous name Sportmans Double Diamond - was born in Macclesfield in Cheshire and flogged at auction in Lanark in Scotland.

Texels hail from the Netherlands and are known for their lean meat and wool used for hosiery yarns.

Little Sportsman Double Diamond sold for 350,000 guineas, which smashed through the previous record of 220,000 guineas (£231,000).

SWNS

He was bought by a group of three breeders - Auldhouseburn, Procters and New View - who plan on using him to breed other top-class lambs.

Texel Sheep Society chief executive John Yates said: "This will, to many people, sound like an extraordinary price for a sheep.

"The Texel breed is the number one terminal sire breed in then UK, siring about 30 percent of all the lambs born in the UK every year.

"This is the very top of the sheep breeding industry in the UK and as such the buyers are investing in the future of their businesses."

Topics: World News, Weird, Animals

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

@ClaireReid19