• Question: How do racing pigeons know how to get home?

    Asked by StuartCottee to Susan, Rob, Rebecca, Josh, Chris on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      There has been quite some research into this and we’re still not sure.

      Some people think that the pigeon just remembers what the land looks like from high up in the sky and remembers the path by looking for familiar things and navigating that way (like you might say turn right at the fish and chip shop and left past the postbox).

      Other people think they use the earth’s magnetic field, that they have an organ that acts like a little compass and they can tell which way is which.

      Other people think that they use the sunlight (i.e. the path of the sun across the sky from East to West) to tell which way to go.

      Basically we’re not entirely sure, but it might be one or a combination of more than one of these!

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