Messenger Pigeon
Ever wondered
how pigeon post works?
In movies and television (e.g., Game of Thrones), we have all seen homing pigeons (or ravens) delivering messages, but what is the story behind this bizarre ability? How can you train a pigeon to deliver your mail?
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More than 3,000 years ago, the first such improvement on message delivery was made, when homing pigeons were first introduced. While studying the patterns and movements of birds, it appeared that they had a wonderful sense of direction, and could consistently find their way back to their nest. Even after foraging, hunting and soaring for miles in every direction, they were able to guide themselves home.
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In this way, pigeons could be programmed, for lack of a better word, to fly home from a range of different locations. Pigeons could use visual cues, like natural landmarks, and gradually develop a known path back to its home base. Unfortunately, this meant manually transporting large amounts of pigeons in one direction, before having them released with a message attached to their leg, hoping that they would return to the original location.
Coded by Anastasia Samsonova