In the Beginning Was Information (35 page)

Detailed results about navigational precision have been found by transporting different kinds of birds to distant locations. A noteworthy experiment was undertaken with two kinds of marine swallows (
Sterna fuscata
and
Anous stolidus
) which breed on the Tortugas Islands in the Gulf of Mexico. The birds were taken by ship in different directions and were released at distances of between 517 and 850 miles (832 and 1368 km) from their nesting place. Although they found themselves in, for them, unknown parts of the ocean, most of them returned home after a few days, flying unswervingly straight back to their eggs and their young on the Tortugas Islands.

Many experiments have been carried out with homing pigeons, and their navigational abilities have been extensively investigated and described. Salomonsen writes as follows about these breathtaking marvels of navigation [S2]:

Even when pigeons have been transported while anaesthetized, or when their cage was rotated so that its orientation changed continuously, they were able to fly back home just as readily as undisturbed pigeons, when released. It can be asserted without a doubt that these birds possess a special ability for determining their geographic position; they have a real navigational sense. We know nothing about the actual nature of this sense, neither do we know where the special sense organ is located.

These birds have exceptional faculties: They can return home over great distances, even though deprived of any possibility of orientation when transported. Wherever they are released, they have the amazing ability to extract the required data from the environment to determine their position relative to their home. Even after having oriented themselves in this unknown way, the real problem arises, namely en route navigation. A simple sense of direction is inadequate for this purpose.

When crossing oceans, the birds have to take drift, caused by the perennial winds, into consideration. To avoid wasting energy on detours, such factors have to be determined and corrected continuously, as with a cybernetic control system. The Creator provided birds with a very precise "autopilot" which is obviously able to monitor environmental data continuously and compare it with the internally programmed home location and the envisioned geographic destination, to guarantee the quickest and most economical route. As yet, nobody but the Creator who devised it knows the location of this vitally important system, neither do we know how the operational information is encoded. We use a special term to cover our ignorance, we say the birds have "instinct."

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