PIGEONS
Pigeons have an impressive sense of direction and, as carrier pigeons, have been appreciated as feathered messengers for centuries. An experiment showed that aside from just transporting words, they can also recognize them. On a computer screen, they accurately distinguished real English words such as “bust” from fantastical combinations of letters such as “bewk.” The pigeons had learned the probability of letter sequences in English—and were thus using a mechanism that is also used by elementary school students. Despite this, however, the sanctity of the mail is not in danger—although pigeons can recognize words, they probably don’t understand their meaning..