Pigeons navigation skill
Created | Updated Apr 16, 2013
How do pigeons manage to return home from miles away?
Pigeons
Pigeon refers to any of several hundred species of birds constituting the family Columbidae (order Columbiformes) that includes around 310 species .Smaller forms are usually called doves,larger forms pigeons. An exception is the white domestic pigeon, the symbol known as the "dove of peace".
Pigeons are, most likely, the best known animals who have the homing instinct .During World War I and II they were employed to carry secret messages beyond enemy lines. In their case this amazing skill does not just apply to ‘racing’ ,‘homing’ or passenger pigeon, all pigeons have the ability to return to their loft.
However there are many theories about how they manage to do that:
Navigation by using their beaks
Studies concluded that pigeons use their beaks to find their way back home .Their beaks were examined using some particle accelerator that moves electrons at the speed of light.They found cells which contain maghemite and magnetite (minerals composed of iron and oxygen) that help them transmit data to nerves and then convert the data into electric impulses that are sent to the brain. Also, the magnetite crystals help pigeons to detect any variation in the magnetic field of the earth which is fantastic .But this ability can be affected by solar storms .(Sun has a important influence on the magnetic field of the earth) These solar storms can distort the earth's magnetic field which can affect the navigation system of the pigeon .That's why pigeons have good days and bad days in a race . Scientists have made charts that help us determine when birds should fly without risks.
Visual signs and odors
The pigeons can find their way back to their loft, even if they are very far away, and use their sense of smell together with their sight to return home.
It was shown many times that pigeons couldn’t find their way if their noses were blocked, therefore preventing their breathing. It is thought that pigeons utilize visual signs when they are near their nests, and odors carried by the winds when they are further away. Some research conclude that pigeons read the landscape as a patchwork of odours .
Scientific studies also suggest that racing pigeons have tremendous memories and that this adds to their sense of navigation. Thus a bird successfully navigating a journey will remember certain aspects of the environment, it is believed, and use the latter when it encounters the journey again.
"GPS neurons"
New study shows that pigeons have some kind of GPS neurons which help them locate not only its heading but the approximate position too. Scientists found cells in the brain that respond to the direction of Earth's magnetic field and record detailed information .
”Follow the main roads”
Another study made by Oxford University show that pigeons „just follow the main roads” to get back home .It is believed that they use roads and freeways to navigate, in some cases pigeon stick so rigidly to the roads that they even change direction at freeway junctions .
Experiment
Research into first two theories has included an experiment along the way :
Scientists from Pisa were the first to test these theories side by side .
For 24 young pigeons the nerves that carried olfactory signals were cut. In another 24 pigeons they cut the trigeminal nerve which is connected to to the part of the brain involved in detecting magnetic fields.
The bird were released just 30 miles from their loft . All but one of those with their trigeminal nerve removed were home within 24 hours, indicating that magnetic field sense wasn't an ability that helped them to navigate. But on the other side(smell sense removed), only 4 of the pigeons made it home .
Whatever the truth is, this unique ability makes the pigeon a very special bird.
"Pigeon is not the only one"
Not every creature has a good sense of direction but it is believed that at some animals homing instinct is innate . Study shows that at baby rats spatial parts of the brain are already functioning in infancy , revealing that not everything we understand about our surroundings is learned .
Cats and their homing instincts have been the subject of a lot of research and investigation given the cat’s inherent ability to find her way home.They navigate more like a pigeon using their keen sense of smell ,hearing and less often sun’s position. But another theory links cats and their homing instinct touch up on the Earth’s magnetic field .They have tiny magnetic particles of metal on the wrists and hind paws.
Do humans have some kind of homing instinct, possibly involving navigation by magnetism like birds do ?
Researchers have conducted a number of experiments to determine whether humans have a magnetic compass sense, but so far, studies haven’t turned up any magnetized cells in our brains.
It is not yet clear exactly what kinds of unique navigational systems humans may have but humans unlike animals can bring many advanced, learned cognitive skills into play when solving a navigational task.
