| Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' | |
|
|
|
Author | Message |
---|
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Tue Jul 20, 2010 4:42 pm | |
| The pigeons have magnets in their beaks Homing pigeons use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate their way home over long distances, scientists writing in Nature magazine claim. The pigeons probably use tiny magnetic particles in their beaks to sense our planet's magnetic field, scientists say
The birds use their ability to create a map of this field and then use it to navigate back to their home loft, New Zealand researchers claim.
It casts serious doubt on a theory that the birds use smell to navigate.
Cordula Mora and colleagues from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, placed homing pigeons in a wooden tunnel with one feeder platform at each end of the tunnel.
Attached to the outside of this tunnel were magnetic coils.
The pigeons were trained to go to one feeder if the magnetic coils were switched off and to the other if the coils were switched on.
Homing sense
The scientists then carried out tests designed to impair their ability to detect a magnetic field.
Firstly, they attached magnets to the birds' beaks, their ability to discriminate when the magnetic coils were switched on or off was drastically impaired.
Secondly, the Auckland team anaesthetised the upper beak area of the pigeons, a similar drop was seen in the ability to detect the magnetic "anomaly" generated by the coils.
Finally, the researchers cut the pigeons' trigeminal nerve (a large nerve carrying optical and other signals to the brain) and found that their magnetic sense was again impaired.
However, this did not occur if the researchers cut the olfactory nerve (which conveys smell signals to the brain), contradicting the theory that they navigate using smell.
Taken together, these results are consistent with the theory that homing pigeons detect magnetic fields using particles located in their upper beaks.
The existence of these magnetic particles in the birds' beaks has been known since the 1970s.
"We suggest that our work provides the basis for detailed studies of both the operation and use of the magnetic sense in homing pigeons and possibly migratory bird species," the researchers write in Nature.
|
|
| |
Don Webb Oldbird
Posts : 14926 Join date : 2009-03-27 Age : 51 Location : Tipton
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:36 pm | |
| Rene nice bit of information, but the way pigeons fing there way home has always been a big mistry |
|
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:49 pm | |
| yes mate i agree but wen i read this i thought ummmmm i wonder what others opinions would be on the subject if i rember rightly a while ago they tracked a pigeon from a training toss and it seemed to follow the roads and motorways before breaking for home but how the hell can they follow roads/motorways across the channel wen there aint none to follow and as it says in the first part of the post it says probably so even they dont know but stii it makes one wonder how they reay do do it |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:07 pm | |
| interesting reading rene, wonder what would happen if you put a magnet onto a pigeons beak..........? as don says tho, it has always been a mistery.......take for example the stray i got in a few weeks ago, firstly i fed it up and took it one mile away........it came back. then a few days later i took it approx three miles away.......it came back. then i decided to take it with me when i went for corn which is ten miles away.........it came back. so then idecided to report the bird and told the owner a friend was driving to the newcastle area in a week or so and he would liberate it nearer home, the bird has been living in my corn shed and if/when she wanted to go out she did, but most of the time she stayed in the shed......then the other night at 8 oclock she flew out of the corn shed and sat on my stock shed, had a look around for a couple of minutes and shot off.........the next day the owner phoned me to tell me she had got home that morning so she decided just out of the blue that she wanted to go home. she must have been a decent pigeon to fly from leeds to newcastle in the rain and thunderstorms that night......so it just goes to show, the homing instinct is a mistery.......... |
|
| |
Rudderfett Youngbird
Posts : 2152 Join date : 2009-09-27 Age : 55 Location : pembrokeshire
| |
| |
Grizzle cock Hatchling
Posts : 570 Join date : 2009-04-18
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:59 pm | |
| David, the same thing happened to my dad, many years ago. I agree, it is a mystery. Why can't all homing pigeons find their way home? if they all could sense the field. |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 8:38 pm | |
| hi niel, i suppose there are a lot of reasons why birds are either homers or racers and also luck would play a part ie bops, weather, wires etc............and i suppose these things are just part of the mystery of the homing ability. |
|
| |
Don Webb Oldbird
Posts : 14926 Join date : 2009-03-27 Age : 51 Location : Tipton
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:19 pm | |
| Must say Martyn, once the birds have there mind on the job and have a clear start then there is no stopping the best pigeons, sort the wheat from the shaft mate. |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:22 pm | |
| what would members say is the difference between a homer and a racer.......? incentive ? or ability ? |
|
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:38 pm | |
| |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:54 pm | |
| |
|
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:06 pm | |
| |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:11 pm | |
| |
|
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:13 pm | |
| yep the basket mate sent 19 of my ybs over the water 9 an af miles got 25 back sent em again tonight for tomo mate |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Thu Jul 22, 2010 11:25 pm | |
| |
|
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 12:01 am | |
| |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 12:14 am | |
| |
|
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 12:19 am | |
| whats wrong with em mate ?
|
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| |
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:09 pm | |
| good luck with em mate we only got a couple of weeks for our 1st race loking forward to it aswell
|
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| |
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 9:21 pm | |
| now that would make me happy after a rubbish ob season mate |
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:13 pm | |
| how many ybs you got rene...........? |
|
| |
Rene A Youngbird
Posts : 3867 Join date : 2010-01-24 Age : 53 Location : Guernsey
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:49 pm | |
| bout 36 altogether but that inclu my two daughters birds aswell mate doin two teams for the 1st two races then all for the last two
|
|
| |
David Oldbird
Posts : 43288 Join date : 2009-03-18 Location : Leeds
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:54 pm | |
| yes sounds a sensible thing to do, round near me they always seem to have a bad first race and big losses...............so it often pays not to put all your eggs in one basket (so to speak...lol) |
|
| |
Sponsored content
| Subject: Re: Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' | |
| |
|
| |
| Pigeons 'sense magnetic field' | |
|