Why Pigeons Are Able to Navigate so Superbly!

The Magnetic Organ

In 1975, a researcher noticed that the bacteria he was studying always clustered at the north side of their culture dish. Even if he turned the dish so that they were at the south end and left it overnight, the next morning the bacteria were back at the north side. Each bacterium contained a chain of tiny magnets! The magnets were actually crystals of the natural magnetic mineral magnetite, the original lodestone of preliterate peoples. Somehow, the bacteria absorbed the soluble components from the water and put them together in their bodies as the insoluble crystalline chain. In 1971, another researcher reported on a lengthy series of experiments with pigeons. He found the same crystals of magnetite, as a submicroscopic mass located on the surface of the pigeon's brain. He found that the mass of crystals was full of nerve fibers that seemed to go into the brain. The magnetite crystals "tell" the pigeon's brain the exact direction of the Earth's magnetic field, and the pigeon uses this information to navigate with its amazing precision. The salamander has two separate magnetic navigational systems. One provides a simple compass, so that when traveling "cross country," it will go in a straight line. The other system enables it to return to the exact spot where it was hatched from its egg in order to mate and lay more eggs. The human "magnetic organ" has been found in the posterior wall of the ethmoid sinus, just in front of the pituitary gland. Humans have an innate ability to sense the direction of magnetic north, and this ability can be blocked by placing a bar magnet against a person's forehead for only fifteen minutes! The directional sense is disturbed for as long as two hours after application of the magnet. It is a sense organ that informs the organism of the direction of the Earth's magnetic field. Nature has provided us with yet another organ that also senses the field and extracts even more significant information from it.

Read the entire article here.

The Unethical Behavior of Chinese Scientists

Chinese scientists said they have succeeded in an experiment to remotely control the flight of a pigeon with electronic technology.

Scientists with the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China's Shandong University of Science and Technology say they implanted micro electrodes in the brain of a pigeon so they can command it to fly right or left or up or down.

The implants stimulated different areas of the pigeon's brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and forced the bird to comply with their commands.

It's the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world, said the chief scientist Su Xuecheng.

The electronic signals resemble the signals generated by the brain which control body movement, said Su.

Su and his colleagues are improving the devices used in the experiment ahd hope that the technology can be put into practical use in future.

Su conducted a similar successful experiment on mice in 2005.

Source: Xinhua

New York Pigeons Detected at PA Tourist Market

Several license plate numbers have been observed and identified as belonging to New York pigeon netters at Roots Market which is located in the tourist area of Lancaster County, PA. where our pigeons are auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Please write to the following people and ask them to investigate the situation at Roots Market so they can put an end to this illegal activity. It is against the law to bait and trap pigeons without a license and against the law to traffic pigeons over state lines. The New York Bird Club has emailed Roots Market with an inquiry, but have received no reply.

Write to:

PA Senator Mike Brubaker (R-Lancaster) mbrubaker@pasen.gov.
He also serves as Committee Chairman of the PA Agriculture Committee

PA Governor Edward G. Rendell
ra-govnews@state.pa.us

Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau
info@padutchcountry.com

Root's Country Market & Auction, Inc.
705 Graystone Road
Manheim, PA 17545
(717) 898-7811
marketmaster@rootsmarket.com

Reference: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/230823

New York pigeons are also used as shooting targets at pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania.

Reference: http://www.hsus.org/wildlife_abuse/campaigns/contests/pennsylvania_pigeon_shoots.html

Do New York Pigeons Migrate

New York Times
The City

Q. Here’s a thought for winter: Do New York pigeons migrate?

A. New York may have snowbirds, but pigeons are not among them.

After researching the question, Anna Dove, the aptly named founder and director of the New York Bird Club, replied: “Pigeons, unlike some other species of birds, do not migrate, and if removed from a nesting area they have a good homing ability and can return from long distances.”

When pigeons are a few months old, she said in an e-mail message, they imprint their location in their brain as “home” and will always return there, unless domesticated into a new home, like a loft.

“They can and will fly many miles away from their roost to find food, but at the end of the day they will always return home, or attempt to, and that is why they are so excellent at carrying messages,” Ms. Dove said.

Pigeon Shoots Terminated at Straustown Rod and Gun Club

December 29, 2008
(source: SHARK)

Christmas came a day late for SHARK investigators, but the present Santa delivered was well worth the wait - the termination of pigeon shoots at the Straustown Rod and Gun Club. December 26 was supposed to be the first day of the annual three-day pigeon slaughter at the Straustown Club, located outside Strausstown, Pennsylvania. Yes, the Club is missing a "s" from its name - go figure. SHARK investigators spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day driving to Pennsylvania for this shoot.

Straustown has held hundreds of pigeon shoots for many years, with the late December shoot being the big end-of-the-year finale. You may recall that last November, SHARK investigators were on the scene to video document a shoot at the club when they encountered Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Kenneth Winter. Winter illegally ordered the investigators off public easement that had been used by shoot protesters and other observers for many years. See video here.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) came to SHARK's aid, contacting the Pennsylvania State Police and threatening court action if the police harassment continued. Interestingly, not a single police officer appeared on December 26, so apparently the police now agree with SHARK and the ACLU regarding the use of public easement.

Because of the ACLU's involvement, the pigeon shooters knew SHARK was coming for the end-of-the-year finale. They knew SHARK was going to video document not only the killing, but their faces and their automobiles and license plates, and SHARK was going to put it all on the internet.

These cowards, many of whom come from outside of Pennsylvania, don't want to be known as the animal abusers they truly are. They may have decided that feeding their bloodlust simply was not worth the certainty of exposure to the world. Shortly after SHARK's arrival on December 26, the first day of the three-day annual slaughter, the pigeon workers proceeded to dismantle the equipment used for pigeon shoots.

After three hours, all the equipment used for at least 15 years for the pigeon shoots was loaded onto pigeon supplier Don Bailey's truck and hauled away.

For two more mornings SHARK monitored the gun club, Don Bailey's house, and another gun club called Wing Pointe used for pigeon shoots. Nothing was happening. There was no massacre.

The end of pigeon shoots at the Straustown Rod and Gun Club is a historic event in animal protection. I can think of no club that had as many pigeon shoots as the Straustown club. Furthermore, the club is only about a mile from the home of Don Bailey, who supplies pigeons for pigeon shoots across Pennsylvania. This was the easiest and more profitable place for Bailey to produce his blood festivals. Every other place Bailey goes will be more difficult and expensive for him.

Pigeon shoots are under a great deal of pressure. There are ongoing lawsuits, and efforts to make pigeon shoots illegal in Pennsylvania, but still they persist. SHARK must continue to pursue these cold-blooded killers, not to mention other animal abusers involved in other cruel events such as rodeos.

The Humane Society of the United States is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people who commit acts of animal cruelty before, during or after live pigeon shoots.

Heidi Prescott, The HSUS' senior vice president of campaigns, states "We encourage anyone with information related to supplying birds, gambling or specific acts of cruelty occurring at shoots to come forward."

Individuals with information may call the toll-free live pigeon shoot tip line at 1-800-637-4124. Individuals may request to remain anonymous.

World War 11 Pigeon Trainer Dies at 84

December 14, 2008
Richard Topus, a Pigeon Trainer in World War II, Dies at 84
By MARGALIT FOX

In January 1942, barely a month after Pearl Harbor, the United States War Department sounded a call to enlist. It wasn’t men they wanted — not this time. The Army was looking for pigeons.

To the thousands of American men and boys who raced homing pigeons, a popular sport in the early 20th century and afterward, the government’s message was clear: Uncle Sam Wants Your Birds.

Richard Topus was one of those boys. He had no birds of his own to give, but he had another, unassailable asset: he was from Brooklyn, where pigeon racing had long held the status of a secular religion. His already vast experience with pigeons — long, ardent hours spent tending and racing them after school and on weekends — qualified him, when he was still a teenager, to train American spies and other military personnel in the swift, silent use of the birds in wartime.

World War II saw the last wide-scale use of pigeons as agents of combat intelligence. Mr. Topus, just 18 when he enlisted in the Army, was among the last of the several thousand pigeoneers, as military handlers of the birds were known, who served the United States in the war.

A lifelong pigeon enthusiast who became a successful executive in the food industry, Mr. Topus died on Dec. 5 in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the age of 84. The cause was kidney failure, his son Andrew said.

Richard Topus was born in Brooklyn on March 15, 1924, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. Growing up in Flatbush, he fell in love with the pigeons his neighbors kept on their rooftops in spacious coops known as lofts. His parents would not let him have a loft of his own — they feared it would interfere with schoolwork, Andrew Topus said — but he befriended several local men who taught him to handle their birds. Two of them had been pigeoneers in World War I, when the United States Army Pigeon Service was formally established.

Pigeons have been used as wartime messengers at least since antiquity. Before the advent of radio communications, the birds were routinely used as airborne couriers, carrying messages in tiny capsules strapped to their legs. A homing pigeon can find its way back to its loft from nearly a thousand miles away. Over short distances, it can fly a mile a minute. It can go where human couriers often cannot, flying over rough terrain and behind enemy lines.

By the early 20th century, advances in communications technology seemed to herald the end of combat pigeoneering. In 1903, a headline in The New York Times confidently declared, “No Further Need of Army Pigeons: They Have Been Superseded by the Adoption of Wireless Telegraph Systems.”

But technology, the Army discovered, has its drawbacks. Radio transmissions can be intercepted. Triangulated, they can reveal the sender’s location. In World War I, pigeons proved their continued usefulness in times of enforced radio silence. After the United States entered World War II, the Army put out the call for birds to racing clubs nationwide. Tens of thousands were donated.

In all, more than 50,000 pigeons served the United States in the war. Many were shot down. Others were set upon by falcons released by the Nazis to intercept them. (The British countered by releasing their own falcons to pursue German messenger pigeons. But since falcons found Allied and Axis birds equally delicious, their deployment as defensive weapons was soon abandoned by both sides.)

But many American pigeons did reach their destinations safely, relaying vital messages from soldiers in the field to Allied commanders. The information they carried — including reports on troop movements and tiny hand-sketched maps — has been widely credited with saving thousands of lives during the war.

Mr. Topus enlisted in early 1942 and was assigned to the Army Signal Corps, which included the Pigeon Service. He was eventually stationed at Camp Ritchie in Maryland, one of several installations around the country at which Army pigeons were raised and trained. There, he joined a small group of pigeoneers, not much bigger than a dozen men.

Camp Ritchie specialized in intelligence training, and Mr. Topus and his colleagues schooled men and birds in the art of war. They taught the men to feed and care for the birds; to fasten on the tiny capsules containing messages written on lightweight paper; to drop pigeons from airplanes; and to jump out of airplanes themselves, with pigeons tucked against their chests. The Army had the Maidenform Brassiere Company make paratroopers’ vests with special pigeon pockets.

The birds, for their part, were trained to fly back to lofts whose locations were changed constantly. This skill was crucial: once the pigeons were released by troops in Europe, the Pacific or another theater, they would need to fly back to mobile combat lofts in those places rather than light out for the United States. Mr. Topus and his colleagues also bred pigeons, seeking optimal combinations of speed and endurance.

After the war, Mr. Topus earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business from Hofstra University. While he was a student, he earned money selling eggs — chicken eggs — door to door and afterward started a wholesale egg business. In the late 1950s, Mr. Topus became the first salesman at Friendship Food Products, a dairy company then based in Maspeth, Queens; he retired as executive vice president for sales and marketing. (The company, today based in Jericho, N.Y. and a subsidiary of Dean Foods, is now known as Friendship Dairies.)

In the 1960s and early ’70s, Mr. Topus taught marketing at Hofstra; the C. W. Post campus of Long Island University; and the State University of New York, Farmingdale, where he started a management-training program for supermarket professionals. In later years, after retiring to Scottsdale, he taught at Arizona State University and was also a securities arbitrator, hearing disputes between stockbrokers and their clients.

Besides his son Andrew, of Chicago, Mr. Topus is survived by his wife, the former Jacqueline Buehler, whom he married in 1948; two other children, Nina Davis of Newton, Mass.; and David, of Atlanta; and four grandchildren.

Though the Army phased out pigeons in the late 1950s, Mr. Topus raced them avidly till nearly the end of his life. He left a covert, enduring legacy of his hobby at Friendship, for which he oversaw the design of the highly recognizable company logo, a graceful bird in flight, in the early 1960s.

From that day to this, the bird has adorned cartons of the company’s cottage cheese, sour cream, buttermilk and other products. To legions of unsuspecting consumers, Andrew Topus said last week, the bird looks like a dove. But to anyone who really knew his father, it is a pigeon, plain as day.

World Animal Day

In this photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a Victoria crowned pigeon is seen at the Bronx Zoo in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/WCS, Julie Larsen Maher).

“World Animal Day was observed earlier this month - on October 4th. Started in Florence Italy in 1931 at a convention of ecologists, World Animal Day has since expanded its focus from its original intent, which was to bring attention to endangered or threatened species. The day is now set aside as a time to reflect on all of the animals we share this world with, and our involvement with them - and to spur action to commemorate that respectful relationship. Half the world’s mammals are declining in population and more than a third are probably threatened with extinction, according to an update of of the Red List (an inventory of biodiversity issued by the IUCN), released on October 6, 2008."

Hail to the Pigeon of Peace -- National Pigeon Day 2009!

National Pigeon Day: Hail to the Pigeon of Peace -- National Pigeon Day 2009!

Two Pigeon Spies Are Arrested

Iran arrests two spy pigeons near nuclear facility
by James Exelby
Tuesday, 21 October 2008

Pigeons have been flying military missions for at least 850 years. Two spy pigeons have been arrested in the vicinity of the Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz, and handed over to the country's security services, local press reported on Monday.

Iranian paper E'temad-e Melli quoted an informed source as saying that one pigeon carrying a wired rod fixed to its body with the use of invisible threads had been caught near the Mihan Rose Water Company in Kashan, Isfahan province.

He added that the second bird, a black pigeon carrying a blue wired rod fixed to its back by invisible threads, had been caught at the beginning of the month.

The Natanz nuclear plant is alleged to be Iran's central facility for uranium enrichment to be used to build an atomic bomb, although there is some speculation that the site could be a front, while expansion of the centrifuge program goes on elsewhere.

The facility is located some 30km from the town of the same name, which itself is 70km from Kashan.

The use of pigeons in military operations dates back to at least the 12th century, originating in the Middle East.

The first recorded use of messenger pigeons was in 1150 in Baghdad and the great Mongol Genghis Khan made use of them soon after.

In 1860, Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used a fleet of over 45 pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen. The outcome of the Battle of Waterloo was also first delivered by a pigeon to England.

In 1994, a medal awarded to a British pigeon working for British Intelligence during World War II sold for 9,200 pounds ($15,755).

The PDSA Dickin medal, the animal equivalent to the UK's highest military award for bravery, the Victoria Cross, was awarded to Commando the Pigeon, who had flown vital information, the location of German troops, industrial sites and injured British soldiers, out of occupied France in 1942.

Commando received his medal in 1945 for his "conspicuous bravery and devotion" before he was put out to stud.

Pigeons Deserve Respect

Pigeons deserve respect: Animals in the News
Posted by Donna J. Miller/Plain Dealer Reporter October 17, 2008

Ever cursed a pigeon? Called the urban dwellers dirty and dumb? Shooed them away like dandruff on a lapel?

Maybe Mr. Pigeon will change your view.

He lived in a cage, in a house full of cats, with an elderly lady who died last year. Cleveland Animal Protective League humane officers took the cats, but wondered what to do with the caged bird. Winter was approaching. The pigeon was accustomed to indoor temperatures.

They called me, knowing I care for rescued chickens and other farm animals.

Mr. Pigeon moved into my semi-finished basement. He didn't seem to mind the cage, but I hated it. I let him loose in one room, where he flew about and perched on shelves and a ceiling fan.

Occasionally, a cat sneaked in. I panicked, but Mr. Pigeon strode up to full-grown felines without fear. He got beak to nose. He pulled tails. He scurried between their legs and pinched their bellies, sending them fleeing.

I stopped worrying about keeping him from cats and enjoyed the winter months watching him rule the room.

In spring, I let him go.

He wouldn't leave.

He soared from tree to tree to the garage roof. Ate cracked corn with ducks and geese. Slept on the door opener mounted to the ceiling of the garage. Hopped down steps and pushed through a cat door to nap in the cool basement on hot days. Ate face-to-face with cats, whom he could read.

He swooped away from Louie and Taxi, who would do him harm. He went for walks in the woods with Thomas. He wrestled with Bruno. Yes, wrestled. I wished I had a video camera.

When I got home from work, Mr. Pigeon would swoop into the garage and land on my car, cooing. One day, he didn't.

I scanned the trees. There sat a bird-eating Cooper's hawk.

But maybe Mr. Pigeon's story can bring better treatment to the birds of Cleveland this winter, where they struggle to survive, not among natural predators, but among people and cars.