Beforehand the researchers trained the pigeons not to obtain food in the home loft, as was normally the case otherwise.
‘We fed the pigeons in a second loft around thirty kilometres away, from where they each had to fly back to their home loft’, said Blaser, explaining the structure of the experiment.
The scientists then brought the pigeons to a third place unknown to the pigeons in completely unfamiliar territory.
This release site was in turn 30 kilometres from the home loft and the food loft. Natural obstacles obscured visual contact between the release site and the two lofts.
One group of the pigeons was allowed to eat before flying home. The other group was kept hungry before starting off.
‘We wanted to find out whether the hungry pigeons fly first to the home loft and from there to the food loft or whether they are able to fly directly to the food loft,’ said Blaser.
‘As we expected, the satiated pigeons flew directly to the home loft’, said professor Hans-Peter Lipp, neuroanatomist at the University of Zurich.
‘They already started on course for their loft and only deviated from that course for a short time to make topography-induced detours.’
The hungry pigeons behaved differently, setting off on course for the food loft from the very beginning and flying directly to that target.
They also flew around topographical obstacles and then immediately adjusted again to their original course.
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