‘Really guy’s’ ‘You will get less articulate answer.

You need to work on the English Language mate.

Tim Guilford’s 10 year study demonstrated that a sun compass and an internal clock plus a great visual memory was all that was required to fly home. Pigeons can see infrared light so clouds present no problem and they do not fly in the dark. It has also been shown that if their sense of smell is inhibited then their homing instincts are completely disrupted. Although I do not rule it out, their ability to use the earth’s electomagnetic field is still pure speculation. I happen to agree with the Karl Popper school of science that states that, once a hypothesis is formulated, it is the duty of the scientist to disprove it, and not to just try prove it. Hence I remain a skeptic. You, on the other hand are just a naughty little boy/girl.

For my penance, a squeaky sorry is not sufficient, so a full grovel is proffered….

Yep, having read the literature now, I think I was misled by the article I quoted, and I now accept I am wrong. Again! But for no longer! Thanks. Pigeons are interesting little chaps….

It’s interesting how this post overlaps with the next post in this way: it seems that cell phone towers are messing with homing pigeons. Not just their navigation, but they seem to show signs of stess having to navigate around them (or maybe that would go along with having your navigation messed up) Maybe human health isn’t the only health we have to worry about with increased cell phone use.

‘And what happens in poor visibility, ‘

This is an argument from personal incredulity. A TEN year study by a team from Oxford showed that pigeons followed the roads even if it took them miles away…

Good question Steve. I guess the researchers never even asked themselves that one. Why don’t you write to them (and tell them about the 53 neurons too).

And what happens in poor visibility, or where fog or late snowfall obscures the ground, or where wide-scale flooding does the same, or when you’re traveling across vast grasslands or forests where it’s all pretty much identical in every direction? And how much flying is done at night or dusk?…I could go on. Having a navigation system that does not rely solely on reading the ground would confer significant evolutionary benefits.

Ha! Thanks for that! It is rare for an old grumps like me to laugh before midday!

@SteveA

‘This is an argument from personal incredulity.’

That is because of my incredulous personality! (Well I think that is what she told me… but she was Irish.) It is more the result of asking why evolutionary biology is bothering to evolve a complex adaptation when it has been proven that vision can already do the job nicely thank you. (I imagine that is what she said to me as she turned her back and flounced off into the distance…. Each to their own I said in a non racist mutter as I sniffed back the last of my chosen drink in order to raise my now lowly spirit.)

‘We have a phenomenon that is well-established – the ability of pigeons to sense and partly navigate according to the earth’s magnetic field.’

is not true…”

What is this basis for your dismissal of this statement?

Dirk Steele: “Then to state it could be due to 53 neurons…. well my own neurons start to shut down. I am too skeptical I suppose.”

This is an argument from personal incredulity.