PT104.S3.P3.Q20 > Analytics

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Homing pigeons can be taken from their lofts and transported hundreds of kilometers in covered cages to unfamiliar sites and yet, when released, be able to choose fairly accurate homeward bearings within a minute and fly home. ███

Phenomenon · Homing pigeons' ability fly home

What's the explanation for this?

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Two Hypotheses · Tracking outward displacement / having a map sense

Not sure what the "tracking outward displacement" hypothesis means. Perhaps will get cleared up later.

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Displacement Hypotheses · Unlikely

Mechanism · Magnetic compass to track displacement

If the birds are using an internal magnetic compass to track displacement, then we would expect distorting magnetic fields to impair their ability to home but it does not reliably do so.

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Mechanism · Conscious navigation to track displacement

If the birds are tracking displacement by consciously tracking their movements (e.g., "I turned left and flew 3 minutes before diving low and then I turned right..."), then we would expect that anesthetizing them would impair their ability to home but it does not at all.

Mechanism · Magnetic and conscious navigation together?

Maybe the birds use both to track displacement? To rule that out, we'd have to experiment with impairing both abilities at the same time.

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Map Sense Hypothesis · Promising but mechanism is mysterious

Mechanism · Olfactory (odors and smells) map

Who is Papi? Anyway, Papi hypothesizes that the mechanism for generating a map is via the bird's sense of smell. It's a odor map.

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Experimental Support · Plugging the pigeons' noses impair their ability to home

Criticism of Olfactory Hypothesis · Pigeons cannot distinguish natural air from filtered air

If pigeons did use their sense of smell to create a map, presumably they would be able to tell natural, scent ladened air, from pure, filtered air. But they cannot.

Alternative Explanation · for Papi's experimental results

Why did Papi's pigeons have trouble homing? It wasn't because they couldn't smell. It was because plugging their noses was a traumatic experience and interfered with their breathing.

Experimental Support · for alternative explanation

When pigeons could not smell but could breathe comfortably, they were able to home. So the mechanism for their map sense is not olfactory.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

20.

Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ████████ ██████ ████████

Even pigeons that ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████ █████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ █████ ███ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████

It’s not clear how this shows a pigeon doesn’t use its olfactory sense to home. Even if they’re raised in different lofts in different territories, perhaps they still build up an olfactory map of the areas in which they were raised.

Pigeons whose sense ██ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ████ █████████

This supports Papi’s theory, because (B) describes what we’d expect to happen if pigeons home using their olfactory sense.

Even pigeons that ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████

It’s not clear how this shows a pigeon doesn’t use its olfactory sense to home. Pigeons might still build an olfactory map and choose different routes using that map to get home.

Even pigeons that ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████ █████ ███ █████

This weakens Papi’s theory, because if a pigeon has been transported beyond the range of odors detectable in their home territories, they shouldn’t be able to build an olfactory map of the area to which they’ve been transported. So if they can still home, they probably aren’t using an olfactory map to get home.

79%

Pigeons' sense of █████ ██ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████

Papi’s theory doesn’t depend on pigeons having a more acute ability to smell than other birds. It depends on pigeons’ ability to create an olfactory map — to be familiar with the smells of different areas.

12%

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