https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Homing pigeons use familiar smells to navigate their way across hundreds of kilometers of unfamiliar territory. Researchers have now confirmed that artificial odors cannot be used to stimulate or trigger a pigeon's navigation system. This means that the so-called olfactory activation hypothesis—which has been proposed by some researchers—should be disregarded, argues Anna Gagliardo of the University of Pisa in Italy. Gagliardo and her colleagues have published their research in Springer's Journal of Comparative Physiology A. https://phys.org/news/2018-07-homing-pigeons-local-natural-odors.html Ecology Wed, 25 Jul 2018 12:05:52 EDT news451739144 (Phys.org)—A small team of researchers with Oxford University in the U.K. and the University of Pisa in Italy, has through experimentation, found that homing pigeons use visual cues to help them find their way home. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study and results which they suggest, help explain the birds' remarkable abilities. https://phys.org/news/2015-10-visual-clues-important-pigeons-homing.html Plants & Animals Wed, 07 Oct 2015 08:30:01 EDT news363422247 No one knows how homing pigeons do it, but now a team of Swiss and South African scientists have discovered that the bird's navigation is affected by disturbances in gravity, suggesting that they navigate using a gravity map and that they may carry an internal gyroscope to guide them home. https://phys.org/news/2014-11-homing-pigeons-gyroscope-brain.html Plants & Animals Wed, 12 Nov 2014 18:00:02 EST news335016977 Radio waves disrupt the magnetic "compass" in robins, according to a study published on Wednesday that is likely to fuel debate about the safety of electronic devices. https://phys.org/news/2014-05-electromagnetic-noise-birds-lost-migration.html Plants & Animals Wed, 07 May 2014 13:21:06 EDT news318687638 (Phys.org) —Homing pigeons' ability to learn and remember routes depends on the complexity of the landscape below. Hedges and boundaries between urban and rural areas provide ideal landmarks for navigation. https://phys.org/news/2014-02-landscape-complexity-affects-pigeons.html Plants & Animals Tue, 04 Feb 2014 10:00:01 EST news310729248 A study has found that homing pigeons' ability to remember routes depends on the complexity of the landscape below, with hedges and boundaries between urban and rural areas providing ideal landmarks for navigation. https://phys.org/news/2014-01-hedges-edges-pigeons.html Plants & Animals Tue, 21 Jan 2014 19:00:01 EST news309540284 Homing pigeons, like other birds, are extraordinary navigators, but how they manage to find their way back to their lofts is still debated. To navigate, birds require a 'map' (to tell them home is south, for example) and a 'compass' (to tell them where south is), with the sun and the Earth's magnetic field being the preferred compass systems. A new paper provides evidence that the information pigeons use as a map is in fact available in the atmosphere: odours and winds allow them to find their way home. The results are now published in Biogeosciences, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). https://phys.org/news/2013-11-pigeons-home.html Plants & Animals Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:09:54 EST news302872184 Birds that yield good vibration provide motion excitation ... for engineers: As Earth warms, birds may be changing their migratory patterns. But to obtain avian data, scientists need in-flight tracking sensors – and those sensors need energy. https://phys.org/news/2013-07-birds-good-vibrations-power-mini.html Engineering Fri, 26 Jul 2013 02:49:55 EDT news294025775 It is a fascinating phenomenon that homing pigeons always find their way home. A doctoral student in biology at the University of Zurich has now carried out experiments proving that pigeons have a spatial map and thus possess cognitive capabilities. In unknown territories, they recognize where they are in relation to their loft and are able to choose their targets themselves. https://phys.org/news/2013-07-pigeons-home.html Plants & Animals Thu, 25 Jul 2013 08:39:23 EDT news293960285 Homing pigeons are usually remarkably efficient navigators, however, on rare occasions, things go drastically wrong. So, when Jon Hagstrum of the US Geological Survey read in his local newspaper about two races when pigeons had been lost in 1998, he was reminded of a lecture by Bill Keeton that he had heard years before as an undergraduate at Cornell University. https://phys.org/news/2013-01-homing-pigeon-mystery.html Plants & Animals Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:00:01 EST news278789478 Many animals travel long distances in groups but little is known about how this may influence the navigational skills of individuals. https://phys.org/news/2012-11-passenger-pigeons.html Plants & Animals Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:40:01 EST news272200008 (Phys.org) -- Finland-based engineers have worked up a novel approach toward an indoor positioning system (IPS) inspired by the way certain animals--from homing pigeons to spiny lobsters--navigate their way with the help of cues that arise from local anomalies of the earth’s magnetic field. The researchers have formed a company with seed capital investment to commercialize their approach. Namely that approach has resulted in a smartphone app that uses magnetic fluctuations to map indoor locations. Aptly named IndoorAtlas, the company is a spinoff from their University of Oulu beginnings. https://phys.org/news/2012-07-finland-team-earth-magnetic-field.html Engineering Tue, 10 Jul 2012 05:24:46 EDT news261116657 How do birds find their way when they fly? Scientists resolved this question a couple of years ago at DESY with the synchrotron radiation source DORIS III, when they discovered structures containing iron in the beaks of homing pigeons. These structures are able to measure the direction and intensity of the earth’s magnetic field and thus help the birds navigate. Recently a team of scientists from the universities of Frankfurt and Oldenburg, the Helmholtz Centre Berlin, and DESY gained surprising new insights with new experiments. https://phys.org/news/2010-03-birds.html Plants & Animals Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:00:19 EDT news188229527