Why do carrier pigeons return from thousands of miles away? This has always been an issue of interest.
Many scientists are studying, and some say that carrier pigeons are homing by magnetic fields. There is a magnetic substance in the head of the carrier pigeon, which can sense the changes in the Earth's magnetic field and use this to navigate to the nest;
Some say that carrier pigeons identify directions by the position of the sun. Carrier pigeons rely on the difference between the position of the sun observed in the distance and the position of the sun observed in the loft to orient the nest;
There is some basis for these claims, but I have found that relying on memory to identify directions during the breeding process is also one of the factors in the return of carrier pigeons.
I have more than two dozen carrier pigeons and I usually enjoy watching their habits. I found that carrier pigeons have an amazing memory.
The young pigeons are out of the shell for ten days, and as soon as the parent pigeons fly into the basket, they ask the parent pigeons to feed them. When other pigeons fly into the nest, they will erect their freshly grown feathers, appear very vigilant, and sometimes peck at outsiders with their mouths. It can be seen that the young pigeons that have been shelled for more than ten days have memories.
When the young pigeons come out of the shed, it is more indicative that they have a strong memory, and rely on memory to discern the direction, the young birds will leave the shed for more than a month, although their wings are not hard, but they like to go out of the shed, one by one with their eyes wide open, which is to observe the surrounding environment and recognize the goal of memory.
When they can fly, they find the loft where they live by the goal they remember.
I did the following experiment: I hatched two young birds at the same time with a pair of parent pigeons, and the two young birds grew up to 30 days, and I took the young pigeon A to walk outside the shed every day, let it play outside the shed, observe and recognize the daily marker of memory.
I kept young pigeon B in the shed so that he wouldn't see what was going on outside the shed. After 14 days, I released both carrier pigeons out of the loft at the same time and drove them to fly, so that the youngsters could return to the loft after flying. As soon as the young bird B flew in, he lost his way and failed to return home.
This shows that the young bird finds its nest by relying on the memory target it recognizes when it leaves the shed.
The "opening" of unfamiliar adult pigeons can also be seen that carrier pigeons rely on memory targets to find their nests. I did the following experiments:
I bought two adult pigeons from the flower and bird market, fed them for a while, paired them up, laid eggs, and fed a small pigeon each to cultivate their feelings for this strange loft.
Then I wrapped the carrier carapelles with rubber glue and let them walk outside the loft to familiarize themselves with the environment.
After a while, I removed the rubber glue from the wings of the carrier pigeon and released it out of the shed with pigeon B, and the two carrier pigeons flew with the other carrier pigeons.
Carrier pigeon B flew a few laps in the sky, flew straight away, never to return. Although the carrier pigeon cara also left the flock to fly, it flew for a while and then stopped on the high roof opposite, looking east and west for a long time, looking for a target.
An hour later it flew up again, I didn't know where to go, and after half a day I came back, and when I came back, I stopped on the high roof opposite and looked around, which was checking the memory target, and finally determined the location of its shed and flew back to the pigeon shed.
This experiment also proves that carrier pigeons must first find the memory target, and then rely on the memory target to return home.
As for taking the carrier pigeon to a distance to release, it is more indicative that it returns from memory. On the way home, as soon as the carrier pigeon flew far above the loft, it folded its wings and glided down, which was its goal of memory to find that its nest was nearby.
I did the following experiment: I divided 4 young pigeons a few months after the hull into two groups of 2 each. I often take out the Young Pigeons of Group A No. 2 and release them from near and far, at a distance of 5 miles, 10 miles, and no more than 20 miles at most.
Each release in a different direction, the purpose is to familiarize themselves with the city, looking for the memory goal of homecoming, group B 2 carrier pigeons do not take to release, only at home twice a day out of the shed to fly.
More than a month later, I entrusted someone to take it to Changxing Island, 100 kilometers away, to release, and as a result, two young pigeons in Group A returned home in more than 2 hours. There are 2 young pigeons in group B, one of which took more than a month to return home and the other never returned.
This experiment proves that carrier pigeons also rely on memory to return from afar.
When the pigeon association competes in carrier pigeons, it always goes from near to far, and flies far away from one stop at a time. The homing rate is high. Facts have proved that if the carrier pigeons are sent thousands of miles away at once, the homecoming rate will drop significantly.
This is probably the memory of each station when the carrier pigeon is released from near to far. The pigeon's vision is very developed, its eyes can be double adjusted, can adjust the distance between the crystal and the cornea, but also adjust the convexity of the cornea. As a result, it can see distant targets clearly and leave deep memories.
When released, it can rely on the memories left along the way and grope for homecoming. Without training from near and far, the carrier pigeons that are released thousands of miles away at once are more difficult to return to the nest because there is no memory target along the way.
I also found that the carrier pigeons have a very long memory, I have a pigeon to give to a friend for more than two years, and then I actually escaped back, and as soon as I came back, I returned to the original nest. This is not accidental, as many facts indicate. Even if the carrier pigeon leaves its home, a year, two years, or even longer, it can fly back to its hometown, and once it returns to the shed, it can jump into its original nest. Even after a long time, it can recognize the original spouse at a glance.
I also did an interesting experiment: I gave two carrier pigeons that I was feeding at my place to a friend, and after breeding for a while, he released two carrier pigeons out of the loft, and the two flew back to me, and I caught the two carrier pigeons back to my friend.
Repeatedly, the two carrier pigeons became familiar with both lofts, and I did not feed, while my friend still fed regularly. As soon as the two carrier pigeons were hungry, they flew to their friends to forage for food.
After a few times, the two carrier pigeons were able to fly back and forth between the two places, acting as our messengers and passing on books for us. This experiment also proved that the homing of carrier pigeons is one of the factors that rely on memory.
Knowing that memory is also one of the main factors in the return of carrier pigeons. We can take advantage of this feature when training carrier pigeons and train them purposefully.
For example, the young bird lets it out of the loft when it can't fly, so that it has an impression of the loft, so that the young bird is not easy to fly.
When pigeons reach 3 or 4 months of age, they should be caught 5 or 60 km away and released to expand their memory of the environment. Before racing, it is necessary to fly from near to far, station by station. If these tasks are done well, it is not indispensable to improve the return rate and speed of carrier pigeons.
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Wen | Wang Huiqiang
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