Jonathan Hagstrum: Avian Navigation, Pigeon Homing and Infrasound

SONIC ACTS Festival - The Geologic Imagination Jonathan Hagstrum: Avian Navigation, Pigeon Homing and Infrasound 29 februrary 2015 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands --- Birds can navigate accurately over hundreds to thousands of kilometres. Their senses outnumber those of humans and can detect small changes in barometric pressure and the weak geomagnetic field. Pigeons can hear very low frequency infrasound, signals that can travel for thousands of kilometres in the atmosphere. Jon Hagstrum discusses how birds might use natural infrasonic signals for long-range navigation. The evidence supporting this hypothesis comes from locations where birds become disoriented in acoustic shadow zones, and the disruption of pigeon races by sonic booms.