Pigeons really do use a magnetic compass
26 November 2004
by Richard
Conan-Davies
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How do those homing pigeons find their way back? Well it has long been suspected that they might be using some kind of magnetic compasss but it was not certain. Now in experiments looking and changing the behaviour of pigeons, presented in the science journal Nature led by Dr. Cordula Mora , pigeons were trained to walk down a tunnel with a magentic field turn on and one turned off. The pigeon group that were trained with the magnetic field did not perform very well at getting around when their beaks were attached with small magnets or when they had their beaks anaesthetised. The tiny particles thought to provide their magnetic sense have yet to be actually seen , because they are so small and very well hidden in their beaks, but these experiments prove that a magnetic sense is the key to their homing and navigation abilities. |
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