Homing Pigeons

I'm sort of a podcast addict. I regularly listen to several and one of my favorites is RadioLab, a science program on NPR. Over the weekend I listened to an episode titled "Lost and Found." They explored questions related to direction, how do we know where we are? I had recently read about a language in which directions were a key element. So you might say "Could you please move your chair NNW? It is in my way." This same group was highlighted in the RadioLab discussion. The people who speak this language develop this ability at an early age and seem to naturally be able to sense their direction at any point in time.

Something new for me, however, was a story on homing pigeons. How do they find their way "home?" Turns out we don't really know how their directional sense works. But, it works quite well. Scientists have tried a variety of experiments--anesthesia, turntables, frosted contact lenses--and still the best explanation is that they have some type of metal in their beaks that allows them to use magnetic forces to find their way.

So, why are they called "homing" pigeons? At the root of the story, for me, was the idea of finding your way "home." That for the pigeons this was a physical location, a place. We all know that home can be a more abstract concept, a feeling, a sense of belonging. How closely are those two tied? As someone who spent her whole childhood in one house, a house in which her father still lives, home as a very strong physical connotation. Going home means something very specific. I wonder what the sense of loss will be when that physical space is no longer available to me.

I thought I had resisted the notion that home needed to be a physical location. I wanted to think that "home is where the heart is," that moving to a new location didn't change my sense of home. Now, as my children leave home, I'm not sure how successful I've been at that resistance. I clearly identify my house as my home.

One interesting note about pigeons. They are monogamous, mating for life. One way to encourage a male homing pigeon to return home faster is to place another male in the cage with his mate. The husband, knowing that his mate is possibly taking up with an outsider, returns "home" faster than if his mate is left alone. So, maybe pigeons aren't so different after all......