Recent study about racing pigeon’s homing skills shows that racing pigeons fly home faster in polluted air. First impression that I had was that even humans will run or walk faster if they were ever in an area where there’s polluted air!
Well, some scientist made a study in North China Plain where there are a lot of polluted air that are higher than anywhere else in that country and compare results on pigeon’ racing times and pollution level.
Here’s the full link for the article in Live Science.
Just in case that link is not available here’s an excerpt from the article.
China currently has an air pollution problem so severe that smog is occasionally dense enough to be visible from space. But the frequently choking haze is providing an unexpected benefit to racing pigeons in one of China’s most polluted regions, helping the birds to navigate home faster, researchers have found.
Using publicly available data gathered from environmental and pigeon racing agencies, scientists analyzed pigeon performance in 415 races that took place on the North China Plain, where concentrations of air pollution are higher than anywhere else in the country, the scientists reported. By comparing the pigeons’ racing times to records of pollution levels on race days, the researchers hoped to learn whether air pollution might affect how well the pigeons performed during the races, the scientists said.
Racing pigeons, also known as “homing pigeons” for their ability to find their way back to a home base, are specialized birds that are bred and trained to compete in tests of navigation and speed, averaging about 37 mph (60 km/h), the researchers said.
Source: LiveScience
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