Secret of Homing Pigeons Revealed

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-02-06 01:03am

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... geons_dc_1

LONDON (Reuters) - The secret of carrier pigeons' uncanny ability to find their way home has been discovered by British scientists: the feathered navigators follow the roads just like we do.

Researchers at Oxford University spent 10 years studying homing pigeons using global positioning satellite (GPS) and were stunned to find the birds often don't navigate by taking bearing from the sun.

Instead they fly along motorways, turn at junctions and even go around roundabouts, adding miles to their journeys, British newspapers reported on Thursday.

"It really has knocked our research team sideways," Professor Tim Guilford said in the Daily Telegraph.

"It is striking to see the pigeons fly straight down the A34 Oxford bypass, and then sharply curve off at the traffic lights before curving off again at the roundabout," he said in The Times.

Guilford said pigeons use their own navigational system when doing long-distance trips or when a bird does a journey for the first time.

But when they have flown a journey more than once they home in on an habitual route home.

"In short it looks like it is mentally easier for a bird to fly down a road...they are just making their journey as simple as possible."

Well I'll be dammed...

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-02-06 01:26am

They also use geomagnetics. Studies have shown that if you stick a small magnet on the birds heads, they get horribly lost.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-02-06 01:27am

Somebody needs to make Mapquest for birds now.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-02-06 01:44am

neoolong wrote:Somebody needs to make Mapquest for birds now.

Lol. There will be now fowl play now.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-02-06 03:49am

kojikun wrote:They also use geomagnetics. Studies have shown that if you stick a small magnet on the birds heads, they get horribly lost.

Yes, but that's for long range stuff and they still have other methods. Bees also uses landmarks which involves human structures they take a mental snapshot off and match like the TERCOM program on a Tomahawk. They can fly many dozens of klicks from the hive and still make it back, quite amazing.

Comosicus · Post by **Comosicus** » 2004-02-06 04:28am

Well, for future positioning devices for cars they could use homing pigeon brains

kept alive by the Power of the Dark Side

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-02-06 04:33am

So the piegons use terrain conture mapping technology like tomahawk cruise missiles.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2004-02-06 10:12am

Comosicus wrote:Well, for future positioning devices for cars they could use homing pigeon brains

kept alive by the Power of the Dark Side

Good God man, it would kick ass, then mating season would start...

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-02-06 10:49am

Xenophobe3691 wrote:
Comosicus wrote:Well, for future positioning devices for cars they could use homing pigeon brains

kept alive by the Power of the Dark Side

Good God man, it would kick ass, then mating season would start...

*ponders the thought of a Toyota trying to fuck an African Swallow.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-02-06 10:55am

Are you sure its African or could it possibly be European?