New Theory on How Homing Pigeons Find Home

Jane J. Lee


Homing pigeons (Columba livia) have been prized for their navigational abilities for thousands of years. They've served as messengers during war, as a means of long-distance communication, and as prized athletes in international races.

But there are places around the world that seem to confuse these birds—areas where they repeatedly vanish in the wrong direction or scatter on random headings rather than fly straight home, said Jon Hagstrum, a geophysicist who authored a study that may help researchers understand how homing pigeons navigate.

Hagstrum's paper, published online Wednesday in the Journal of Experimental Biology, proposes an intriguing theory for homing pigeon disorientation—that the birds are following ultralow frequency sounds back towards their lofts and that disruptions in their ability to "hear" home is what screws them up.

Called infrasound, these sound waves propagate at frequencies well below the range audible to people, but pigeons can pick them up, said Hagstrum, who works at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California.

"They're using sound to image the terrain [surrounding] their loft," he said. "It's like us visually recognizing our house using our eyes."

Homeward Bound?

For years, scientists have struggled to explain carrier pigeons' directional challenges in certain areas, known as release-site biases.

This "map" issue, or a pigeon's ability to tell where it is in relation to where it wants to go, is different from the bird's compass system, which tells it which direction it's headed in. (Learn about how other animals navigate.)

"We know a lot about pigeon compass systems, but what has been controversial, even to this day, has been their map [system]," said Cordula Mora, an animal behavior researcher at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who was not involved in the study.

Until now, the two main theories say that pigeons rely either on their sense of smell to find their way home or that they follow the Earth's magnetic field lines, she said.

If something screwed up their sense of smell or their ability to follow those fields, the thinking has been, that could explain why pigeons got lost in certain areas.

But neither explanation made sense to Hagstrum, a geologist who grew interested in pigeons after attending an undergraduate lecture by Cornell biologist William Keeton. Keeton, who studied homing pigeons' navigation abilities, described some release-site biases in his pigeons and Hagstrum was hooked.

"I was just stunned and amazed and fascinated," said Hagstrum. "I understand we don't get dark matter or quantum mechanics, but bird [navigation]?"

So Hagstrum decided to look at Keeton's pigeon release data from three sites in upstate New York. At Castor Hill and Jersey Hill, the birds would repeatedly fly in the wrong direction or head off randomly when trying to return to their loft at Cornell University, even though they had no problems at other locations. At a third site near the town of Weedsport, young pigeons would head off in a different direction from older birds.

There were also certain days when the Cornell pigeons could find their way back home from these areas without any problems.

At the same time, homing pigeons from other lofts released at Castor Hill, Jersey Hill, and near Weedsport, would fly home just fine.

Sound Shadows

Hagstrum knew that homing pigeons could hear sounds as low as 0.05 hertz, low enough to pick up infrasounds that were down around 0.1 or 0.2 hertz. So he decided to map out what these low-frequency sound waves would have looked like on an average day, and on the days when the pigeons could home correctly from Jersey Hill.

He found that due to atmospheric conditions and local terrain, Jersey Hill normally sits in a sound shadow in relation to the Cornell loft. Little to none of the infrasounds from the area around the loft reached Jersey Hill except on one day when changing wind patterns and temperature inversions permitted.

That happened to match a day when the Cornell pigeons had no problem returning home.

"I could see how the topography was affecting the sound and how the weather was affecting the sound [transmission]," Hagstrum said. "It started to explain all these mysteries."

The terrain between the loft and Jersey Hill, combined with normal atmospheric conditions, bounced infrasounds up and over these areas.

Some infrasound would still reach Castor Hill, but due to nearby hills and valleys, the sound waves approached from the west and southwest, even though the Cornell loft is situated south-southwest of Castor Hill.

Records show that younger, inexperienced pigeons released at Castor Hill would sometimes fly west while older birds headed southwest, presumably following infrasounds from their loft.

Hagstrum's model found that infrasound normally arrived at the Weedsport site from the south. But one day of abnormal weather conditions, combined with a local river valley, resulted in infrasound that arrived at Weedsport from the Cornell loft from the southeast.

Multiple Maps

"What [Hagstrum] has found for those areas are a possible explanation for the [pigeon] behavior at these sites," said Bowling Green State's Mora. But she cautions against extrapolating these results to all homing pigeons.

Some of Mora's work supports the theory that homing pigeons use magnetic field lines to find their way home.

What homing pigeons are using as their map probably depends on where they're raised, she said. "In some places it may be infrasound, and in other places [a sense of smell] may be the way to go."

Hagstrum's next steps are to figure out how large an area the pigeons are listening to. He's also talking to the Navy and Air Force, who are interested in his work. "Right now we use GPS to navigate," he said. But if those satellites were compromised, "we'd be out of luck." Pigeons navigate from point to point without any problems, he said.


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Obama Prods GOP on Immigration Negotiations


Jan 31, 2013 6:00am







gty barack obama nt 130130 wblog Immigration Negotiation: Obama Prods GOP Toward Gang of Eight

                                                                        (Image Credit: John Gurzinski/Getty Images)


President Obama has apparently had enough of leading from behind.


During the health-care push, Obama left Congress to its own devices. On immigration, he’s doing just the opposite, attempting to prod Republican legislators to the middle by demanding a vote on his own plan.


Obama Confident Immigration Overhaul Passes This Year


The president insisted Tuesday that Congress vote on his plan as soon as possible, barring agreement on something else.


“It’s important for us to recognize that the foundation for bipartisan action is already in place,” Obama said, referring to a bipartisan Senate bill offered up by the so-called Gang of Eight senators, which looks much more palatable to Republicans than Obama’s own plan. “And if Congress is unable to move forward in a timely fashion, I will send up a bill based on my proposal and insist that they vote on it right away.”


In doing so, Obama dared Congress to say “no” to something specific.


A Glossary for Immigration Overhaul


It’s the same strategy Obama used in the “fiscal-cliff” talks. With a year-end deadline approaching, he pushed Congress to vote on his own plan: to let higher income tax hikes go into effect if lawmakers couldn’t cut a deal themselves. Obama asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada to call “an up-or-down vote” on that plan, the president announced in a Dec. 28 appearance before cameras at the White House.


“If members of the House or the Senate want to vote ‘no,’ they can, but we should let everybody vote,” Obama said then.


Republicans hate such a negotiation tactic. Throughout Obama’s White House tenure, GOP aides have griped that the president and congressional Democrats have sought political gain while refusing to negotiate in good faith. On immigration, it’s the same.


The Obama plan includes a faster path to citizenship and nothing to trigger border-security enforcement. It would also clear an easier path for same-sex couples.


Before Obama rolled out his immigration plan in Nevada Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio of  Florida raised concerns that the president would launch a “bidding war.”


In a radio interview with Rush Limbaugh, Rubio dismissed the notion of an up-or-down vote: “It’s going to have to go through committees and people are going to have their input. There’s going to be public hearings.  I don’t want to be part of a process that comes up with some bill in secret and brings it to the floor and gives people a take it or leave it.


“I want this place to work the way it’s supposed to work, with every senator having input and the public having input,” Rubio said.


A Senate Republican aide jabbed, “The president’s been gone from the Senate a long time and perhaps he has forgotten that it’s a lot easier to pass legislation if he works with Congress.”


Obama has presented Republicans with a plan they will like much less than what’s been crafted by the bipartisan Senate group. The group plan includes triggers to enforce border-security measures, more unmanned drones and no provisions making it easier for same-sex couples seeking to immigrate or naturalize.


Unless other Republicans come up with a plan of their own, the president has given Republicans a choice between the left and the middle. It’s not hard to tell which they’d prefer.



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Basketball: ABL looking to connect more with fans this season






SINGAPORE: Around 135,000 spectators caught all the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) matches live last season.

And new measures are being introduced this season to help increase viewership both on and off the court for the six teams including the Singapore Slingers.

The ABL was launched in 2009 and it has raised the profile of the game of basketball.

However, there is still a huge market to tap and ABL hopes to achieve that with greater television coverage and live streaming this year.

Anthony Macri, chief executive officer of ABL, said: "Each one of our teams this year will have a local television broadcast partner. Last year, only half of our teams had one. With technology willing, we are streaming every one of our games live this year through the region."

There will be more play-off matches and the quality of is expected to be high despite the reduction from eight teams last season to six teams this year.

"The quality of play will increase. We have seen an increase (in quality) over the last three seasons and I think this year will be no different," Mr Macri assured.

Improving fan experience is another area that is a big concern.

The Singapore Slingers has one of the best venues among the six teams but its sheer size affects the game atmosphere.

That could soon change once the Sports Hub is completed.

Singapore Slingers' general manager Michael Johnson said: "Once the Sports Hub is up, there will be a multi-purpose facility and there is some talk there might be a situation where we could move there. That would be a 3,000-seater ring.

"At this stage, that would be the ideal size for us. When we have some games, for example against the San Miguel Beers, it would be sold out as we get over 3,000 (spectators)."

The ABL has definitely impacted Singapore basketball in a positive way.

All the 10 local players in the Slingers are part of the national squad and playing in the league provides the critical competition as they gear up for the 2013 and 2015 SEA Games.

- CNA/fa



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Wanting dhoti-clad PM may have caused 'Vishwaroopam' ban: Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) president M Karunanidhi on Wednesday wondered whether the Tamil Nadu government's ban on Kamal Haasan's movie "Vishwaroopam" was because the actor wanted a dhoti-clad Tamilian as prime minister.

In a letter to party cadres, Karunanidhi said some sections of people are of the view that the actor earned the ire of the state government after he said that a dhoti-clad Tamilian, referring to Union finance minister P Chidambaram, should become the country's prime minister.

Karunanidhi also said that there is a view among a section of people that a television channel close to the ruling party in the state had offered to buy the rights of "Vishwaroopam", which the actor declined as the price quoted was much lower than what the film was sold for to another channel.

The Tamil Nadu government had earlier banned the release of "Vishwaroopam" for 15 days as it feared the movie could spark a law and order problem because it contained references to the Muslim community that were allegedly derogatory.

Many Muslim organisations had opposed the movie, claiming that it presented the community in poor light.

Earlier in the day, Kamal Haasan told reporters that he was unable to understand why "Vishwaroopam" was banned. The film had cost Rs.95 crore to produce.

Kamal said he would scout for a truly secular Indian state; otherwise, he would settle in some other country that was secular.

"I don't understand what is happening. If I try to understand, I will turn into a politician. I don't want to," the 58-year-old actor said.

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Timbuktu’s vulnerable manuscripts are city’s "gold"


French and Malian troops surrounded Timbuktu on Monday and began combing the labyrinthine city for Islamist fighters. Witnesses, however, said the Islamists, who claim an affiliation to al Qaeda and had imposed a Taliban-style rule in the northern Malian city over the last ten months, slipped into the desert a few days earlier.

But before fleeing, the militants reportedly set fire to several buildings and many rare manuscripts. There are conflicting reports as to how many manuscripts were actually destroyed. (Video: Roots of the Mali Crisis.)

On Monday, Sky News posted an interview with a man identifying himself as an employee of the Ahmed Baba Institute, a government-run repository for rare books and manuscripts, the oldest of which date back to the city's founding in the 12th century. The man said some 3,000 of the institute's 20,000 manuscripts had been destroyed or looted by the Islamists.

Video showed what appeared to be a large pile of charred manuscripts and the special boxes made to preserve them in front of one of the institute's buildings.

However, a member of the University of Cape Town Timbuktu Manuscript Project told eNews Channel Africa on Tuesday that he had spoken with the director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, Mahmoud Zouber, who said that nearly all of its manuscripts had been removed from the buildings and taken to secure locations months earlier. (Read "The Telltale Scribes of Timbuktu" in National Geographic magazine.)

A Written Legacy

The written word is deeply rooted in Timbuktu's rich history. The city emerged as a wealthy center of trade, Islam, and learning during the 13th century, attracting a number of Sufi religious scholars. They in turn took on students, forming schools affiliated with's Timbuktu's three main mosques.

The scholars imported parchment and vellum manuscripts via the caravan system that connected northern Africa with the Mediterranean and Arabia. Wealthy families had the documents copied and illuminated by local scribes, building extensive libraries containing works of religion, art, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, history, geography, and culture.

"The manuscripts are the city's real gold," said Mohammed Aghali, a tour guide from Timbuktu. "The manuscripts, our mosques, and our history—these are our treasures. Without them, what is Timbuktu?"

This isn't the first time that an occupying army has threatened Timbuktu's cultural heritage. The Moroccan army invaded the city in 1591 to take control of the gold trade. In the process of securing the city, they killed or deported most of Timbuktu's scholars, including the city's most famous teacher, Ahmed Baba al Massufi, who was held in exile in Marrakesh for many years and forced to teach in a pasha's court. He finally returned to Timbuktu in 1611, and it is for him that the Ahmed Baba Institute was named.

Hiding the Texts

In addition to the Ahmed Baba Institute, Timbuktu is home to more than 60 private libraries, some with collections containing several thousand manuscripts and others with only a precious handful. (Read about the fall of Timbuktu.)

Sidi Ahmed, a reporter based in Timbuktu who recently fled to the Malian capital Bamako, said Monday that nearly all the libraries, including the world-renowned Mamma Haidara and the Fondo Kati libraries, had secreted their collections before the Islamist forces had taken the city.

"The people here have long memories," he said. "They are used to hiding their manuscripts. They go into the desert and bury them until it is safe."

Though it appears most of the manuscripts are safe, the Islamists' occupation took a heavy toll on Timbuktu.

Women were flogged for not covering their hair or wearing bright colors. Girls were forbidden from attending school, and boys were recruited into the fighters' ranks.

Music was banned. Local imams who dared speak out against the occupiers were barred from speaking in their mosques. In a move reminiscent of the Taliban's destruction of Afghanistan's famous Bamiyan Buddha sculptures, Islamist fighters bulldozed 14 ancient mud-brick mausoleums and cemeteries that held the remains of revered Sufi saints.

A spokesman for the Islamists said it was "un-Islamic" for locals to "worship idols."


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Gunman Kills Bus Driver, Takes Child as Hostage













A gunman shot and killed a school bus driver in Midland City, Ala., Tuesday afternoon and escaped the scene with a 6-year-old passenger, which has prompted a hostage situation that is still going on this morning.


The suspected gunman is identified as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 60-something military veteran, a police source told ABC News. Dykes and the child are in an underground bunker behind his home.


Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said Tuesday night that the police had information that the little boy "is OK right now." The boy was delivered some needed medication, police told ABC News.


The police have not identified the child or the dead bus driver.


"Extremely sensitive situation. ... Our agents are working very hard with the locals for the best possible outcome to this situation," a federal law enforcement source told ABC News this morning.






Danny Tindell/Dothan Eagle











Gunmen Sought in California Hostage Situation Watch Video











California Hostage Situation: Dramatic 911 Calls Watch Video





Some people in the area were evacuated Tuesday evening, and everyone in the immediate area was notified of the situation, according to Olson.


"Stay at home and pray," Olson told homeowners living in the area.


Olson said multiple agencies have responded to the hostage situation. The FBI has assumed the lead in the investigation, and SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams were surrounding the bunker as of Tuesday night.


The incident began a little after 3:30 p.m. local time Tuesday. An unidentified girl, who was on the bus, told ABC News Radio the bus driver had stopped to drop off some children. The alleged gunman boarded the bus and handed the driver a note, she said.


"And then I don't know what happened after that but he started telling them he needed a kid because of the law coming after him," she said.


Dykes got on the bus and originally demanded that he get two children as hostages. All the children on the bus managed to escape except the 6-year-old boy, a police source told ABC News affiliate WDNH.


"He shot the bus driver, and the driver's foot was on the gas and we went backwards. And everybody started screaming. And then the bus driver was still there and we all got off the bus and went to a neighbor's house," the girl said.


Dykes was scheduled to be in court today for a trial related to charges of menacing, according to court records obtained by WDNH.



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An appointment no one wants; Barney Frank’s going to be a senator; Anna Wintour’s boyfriend’s tax problem (read-this roundup)




Anna Wintour with Shelby Bryan at a state dinner.
(Brendan Hoffman - GETTY IMAGES)
Here’s what the Loop is reading today:



Ah, no thanks — Here’s one presidential appointment almost no one is jumping at: sitting on that health-care panel on doctor fees and reducing costs. It comes with low pay, plus the risk of political fallout — oh, and you’ll have to go through Senate confirmation, too.



Sen. Frank? — News flash! Rep. Barney Frank is going to be a senator! The Massachusetts Democrat has been campaigning for a temporary Senate seat, and he’s got one — well, at least he’s playing a senator, for one night only, in a theater production in New York.



Taxing issues — Wonder if this hurts her chances of getting that ambassadorship: Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s longtime boyfriend has a tax problem. Seems Shelby Bryan owes the feds more than a million bucks...



Kerry advancing — Today’s the day for the Senate Foreign Relations committee’s vote on Sen. John Kerry’s nomination to be Secretary of State.

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Tampines junction to be reviewed after fatal accident






SINGAPORE: MP for Tampines GRC Baey Yam Keng says authorities will review the junction of Tampines Avenue 9 and Tampines Street 45, following a fatal accident there.

Two brothers, aged seven and 13, died after their bicycle collided with a cement truck on Monday evening.

The brothers Nigel and Donovan cycled around the Tampines estate frequently.

The tragic accident came as a rude shock to their distraught parents who said their sons were usually very careful on the roads.

Mr Francis Yap, the father of the boys, said: "It's very sad. As a father, I have lost two kids. I hope that those people driving on the roads think about other people's families also. For those small roads, it's better to travel within the speed limits and don't go so fast, especially if you drive a big vehicle. It's very dangerous. So you must take extra caution to safeguard other people's lives."

Authorities are also assessing if the routes for heavy-duty vehicles can be reviewed.

Tampines GRC MP Baey Yam Keng said: "Given that this incident involved a cement truck and because of the various projects that are happening in the area, (such as) public housing projects (and) MRT lines (construction), there will be more heavy vehicles in the precinct.

"So, I've asked the authorities to review the routes taken by these vehicles to see if there is any way we could re-route them so that they avoid areas which are near schools or where there are many pedestrians."

Monday's accident is the second fatal one at that road junction in the last 13 months. In December 2011, a 22-year-old unlicensed driver killed a pedestrian while rashly making a right turn from Tampines Street 45 onto Tampines Avenue 9.

Residents Channel NewsAsia spoke to also said that the particular road junction is accident-prone and hope more can be done to beef up the safety in the area, especially with schools nearby.

To equip riders with bike handling competencies, the Singapore Cycling Federation has rolled out two cycling certification programmes.

The first is the BMX certification programme that provides riders with an assessment on their level of competency in bike handling.

The other, which is the Bronze certification programme, is somewhat similar to the Highway Code and practical motorbike-riding lessons. It also aims to educate riders on what to do when faced with dangerous situations while riding on the road.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat meanwhile said schools will step up road safety education and work with the police and the Land Transport Authority on further measures to enhance safety.

Separately, the principal of Tampines North Primary School, Madam Neo Lay Wah, said Donovan was a cheerful student who was well-liked for his pleasant personality. He was helpful towards his classmates and was always well-behaved.

The older boy, Nigel, was an ex-student from the school. He was a friendly and outgoing boy who was always willing to lend a helping hand to his classmates.

The school is in contact with the family and the priority is to support them during this difficult time. The school will closely monitor the well-being of the staff and students and extend counselling support to the affected teachers and students.

- CNA/ir



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UPA government cheating people on Lokpall Bill: Anna Hazare

PATNA: Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare on Tuesday said assurances like the one by Sonia Gandhi that Lokpal Bill would be passed in the budget session of Parliament were being made for the past two years and said intentions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress president on it were 'not clear'.

"Such letters and assurances (like the one by Sonia Gandhi) are coming for the past two years. Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier too written such letters to me promising to pass the Lokpal Bill," Hazare told reporters here.

"(Their) intention is not clear ... They have been cheating people time and again ... If they had been honest one or at best two parliamentary sessions would have been sufficient to do it (pass the Lokpal Bill)," he said.

Asked if he had any expectation from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the bill, he said "Everybody is the same. All of them are cheating the people."

Sonia Gandhi had written a letter to Hazare recently and send it to his Rale Sidhi village home assuring him that the Lokpal Bill, which he is struggling for, would be passed in the coming budget session of Parliament.

The letter was sent days before Hazare launches his fresh campaign from Patna on Wednesday.

Hazare, who was accompanied by retired Army chief V K Singh, said he would launch a nation-wide 'movement for 'changing the system to fulfil the 'dreams of Mahatama Gandhi and Jaiprakash Narayan'.

He is scheduled to launch a country-wide 'vyawastha parivartan' (change in system) programme and address a "jantranta rally" here on Wednesday.

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Space Pictures This Week: Martian Gas, Cloud Trails

Image courtesy SDO/NASA

The sun is more than meets the eye, and researchers should know. They've equipped telescopes on Earth and in space with instruments that view the sun in at least ten different wavelengths of light, some of which are represented in this collage compiled by NASA and released January 22. (See more pictures of the sun.)

By viewing the different wavelengths of light given off by the sun, researchers can monitor its surface and atmosphere, picking up on activity that can create space weather.

If directed towards Earth, that weather can disrupt satellite communications and electronics—and result in spectacular auroras. (Read an article on solar storms in National Geographic magazine.)

The surface of the sun contains material at about 10,000°F (5,700°C), which gives off yellow-green light. Atoms at 11 million°F (6.3 million°C) gives off ultraviolet light, which scientists use to observe solar flares in the sun's corona. There are even instruments that image wavelengths of light highlighting the sun's magnetic field lines.

Jane J. Lee

Published January 28, 2013

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