We've found our pigeons!

Aug 13, 2015

144

We've found our pigeons!We thought about catching our pigeons from the wild (or the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, where pigeons are almost as abundant as people!). But, we wouldn't know the age and health status of the birds. So, we've found a very reputable breeder of all things fowl. Meet Double T Farm in Iowa, USA! 
                
We've used their birds before, and they're among the best and brightest of any pigeon we've ever tested in learning and cognition experiments. The birds arrive at our colony at UCLA when they are about a year old. Given their life expectancy in the lab of 15 years, they will make quite a few contributions to research on brainy birds!
I'm including a pic from a few years ago of my daughter running past a wild pigeon on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France. They do have wonderful pigeons in Europe, too. More updates to follow soon!

Cindy, Janis, and 1 other like this.

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Cindy WuBacker

I've always wondered if we could use wild pigeons for research. There sure is no shortage of them in the city.

Aug 20, 20150

Aaron P. BlaisdellResearcher

yes, pigeons make excellent research subjects for behavioral experiments! Thanks for supporting our research!

Aug 20, 20150

About This Project

How do birds see the world?

UCLA

How do birds fly around objects without crashing into them? Their object perception must be similar to ours, despite having a dramatically different brain and separate evolutionary history. We will test whether bird brains handle object perception the same way that the human brain does. Pigeons will play a video game where they have to rapidly peck objects as they appear on a computer screen. The speed of their responses will tell us how the birds see the objects.