Secret Of Homing Pigeons Revealed - They Follow The Roads!

[matcom]

<snip>

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.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/02/05/secret_of_homing_pigeons_revealed/

[GOPisEvil]

1. I don't know why, but I find this REALLY amusing.

Pretty neat, too. I'd have never guessed they follow the roads! :D

[Ready4Change]

2. I wonder...

I wonder if they've looked into why? For example, mybe they are retracing the route their owner took to drive them to their release location?

They should have the owners drive to the release location by a somewhat circuitous route, and see if the pigeons follow that path?

[Superfly]

4. Easy to answer...

When you are in the city, where do you see pigeons, besides eating shit off the ground?

Powerlines! And what parallels roads? Powerlines!

[supernova]

3. "even go around roundabouts"

Why do I find the notion of "air roundabouts" funny?

[BlueJazz]

5. This just confirms what I've always thought...

...That the Pigeons are making sure that they "Bomb" as many cars as possible. :)

[jimbo fett]

6. What did they do before roads? I guess they didn't go far from home.