How Do Postal Pigeons Find Their Way?

Over time, carrying letters became difficult and people sought a faster and easier way to get the messages they wanted from one place to another. At this point the pigeons began to be trained and then “carrier pigeons” appeared.

So, how do these creatures manage to convey the letters they carry despite traveling many kilometers? they were able to deliver them to their destinations without fail. Have you ever thought?

More than 3,000 years ago, it turned out that pigeons have tremendous orientation and can consistently find their way back to their nests with accuracy.

pigeons; They are easy to catch, strong reproductive ability, generally docile and quite adaptable. Long ago, especially rock pigeons, birds that can find their way home “carrier pigeonsselected and hybridized to reveal the concept of ”.

These rock pigeons are carefully and carefully trained, gradually removed from their nests, and then free to fly to their homes and desired locations. was provided.

The first hypothesis about what is behind these abilities of rock pigeons is that they have strong “magnetic sensing” skills.

In other words, magneto-perception is the ability of these creatures to perceive and direct themselves based on magnetic fields in certain life forms. an innate talent. Apart from pigeons, this ability is found in varying amounts in many different bird species, but not in humans.

Thanks to this ability, pigeons are able to interact with the natural directions of the magnetic fields flowing between the North and South Pole, instead of east and west. traveling long distances in the north and south directions It can perform much better.

According to a study conducted in the USA, homing pigeons used low-frequency sound waves emitted by almost everything to mentally map their environment and get to and from the requested destination.

These abilities of theirs are better than humans down to about 0.1 Hertz. can hear at much lower frequencies originates. Such waves emanate from the Earth itself, actually from the oceans and also from the earth’s crust.

According to this theory, pigeons to create acoustic maps of their environment it uses low-frequency infrasound waves and accurately finds their destination even as they oscillate miles away from where they live.

This approach; It not only explains how the pigeons get where they want to reach perfectly, but also allows us to infer why they rarely get lost.

Strong winds, aircraft, and various other phenomena when these sound waves are distorted, the birds will be disoriented and may be drifted on a wrong course.

Another view of pigeons’ ability to find their destination is related to the sense of smell of these creatures.

More than 50 years ago, researchers sniffed the air components of homing pigeons from different wind directions.scent mapHe claimed they could improve.

These creatures mentally draw a regional map of what they smell, and so they sort of use this map to find their destination. compass like they use. However, what kind of odors the birds smell remains a mystery.

The homing pigeons, which have been known to be used for various purposes for many years, were the main news carrier of especially diplomacy and even military operations in the past.

This function is their war pigeons They were even used during the Second World War for carrying letters. Looking at historical points, Genghis Khan used homing pigeons to maintain communication with the far reaches of his empire, and these creatures played an important role in announcing important events such as the Olympics even in Ancient Greece.

Although we find it hard to believe that homing pigeons still exist, despite the development of communication tools and communication networks, these animals are cut out for them in many parts of the world. continues to fulfill this task.