horrors beyond my comprehension = everything
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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That diagram literally says that they don't look the same to the pigeons, and seems to suggest that pigeons may place more value on the beak than they do on the eyes.
Imagine for a moment that you have never seen a photo of yourself , ever. Or anyone who is a human.
Your whole life you grew up in a white room with other animals like you in cages.
The problem with using 2d images in animal research is that it is assumed that animals understand what photos are.
But they probably don't. Or at least they don't rely on them or interpret them like we do. From a young age we watch tv. Read picture books. Look at photos albums. Even draw each other.
Animals don't have those experiences. Especially lab animals. They don't even have the experience of seeing billboards or posters.
This is a huge problem in forming any type of conclusions from animal research like this.
It's not impossible. But their perception is not like a humans.
They don't see a photograph of a bird and recognize it's their kind they are looking at.
They probably just think it's a screen or paper. Or something like that.
Because 2d is unnatural. They likely have limited ability to understand it's a representation.
Even humans have to learn to interpret representations (I can explain this more if someone asks).
How do birds identify each other?
Sounds they make ? Location? Movements ?
I'm not sure exactly but I doubt it's solely visual face recognition.
Even dogs use smell more than visual face recognition.
They discuss this in the paper. Scientists aren't just randomly doing shit, they do actually put in thought.
Video Playback Techniques
Pigeons are social animals. They often communicate with each other by exhibiting distinct behaviors, such as courtship displays in front of potential mates. Accordingly, the occurrence of a courtship display indicates that a bird ‘recognizes’ the visual object as a potential mate [Shimizu, 1998; Partan et al., 2005; Patton et al., 2010]. In studies in our laboratory, as well as that of Barrie J. Frost and Nikolaus F. Troje [Frost et al., 1998], subject pigeons were exposed to live stimulus pigeons, videotaped pigeons, and photographs of pigeons to examine which visual features can trigger spontaneous courtship displays.
...
The significant results of video-playback stimuli further emphasize the potency of visual signals in courtship, considering the fact that the quality of a video-playback stimulus is much poorer compared to both real live stimulus birds and taxidermic models [D’Eath, 1998]. The video-playbacks were presented on a 2-dimensional monitor screen that was designed for the eyes of human observers. Video stimuli cannot provide depth information nor accurate color information for the avian visual system. However, the fact that video-playbacks can trigger courtship responses does not imply that the stimulus deficiencies are irrelevant for the expression of courtship responses.
Edit: Also as others have discussed, the Tumblr OP is misrepresenting the results of the study. Even in this study the pigeons showed clear preference patterns that indicate that they're understanding that it's a picture of a pigeon.
I never said the authors didn't discuss this. I was explaining it to people less familiar with this issue.
I realize the results support general face recognition. Pigeons are pretty good at visual discrimination on trained/experienced material.
But results should still be considered somewhat "unnatural" as the research was not on normally developed pigeons.
Interesting story: the university I attended used to have a professor who had pigeon housing on the roof of the psych building and would use wild pigeons for experiments. He fed the birds to coax them to participate.
Very ethical because essentially the birds volunteered. And high quality results because they were average wild pigeons in experience and ability.
However the university shut it all down.
This was before my time there but that's the story I was told.
It's fault tolerance. "I know a guy like that, his beak fell off. He's still a pigeon though."
Does this imply that pigeons don't experience the Uncanny Valley? Does it mean that we can determine whether non-human animals experience the Uncanny Valley? Because I would love to see a deep dive into how common that is in the animal kingdom.
It might also be their version of the uncanny valley applies for different things.
A dog's uncanny valley could be something that smells slightly off, but humans wouldn't think much about a human that smells funny, for example.
Whereas a pigeons may well focus on other features instead of the face.
Very good point! Would love to see that researched as well.
I'd also be fascinated if we figured out a way to do it
I personally suspect it's not common in the animal kingdom. It's quite likely a defense against leprosy, a disease that is most dangerous in larger society type communities, without outside predators (to pick off the sick).
That theory might be wrong however. Its distribution would tell us a lot about what it defends against.
I'll throw in, probably for death and disease. many other animals have heightened smell, so humans had to evolve a different "sense" for that.
According to the abstract, pigeons can detect subtle local changes, but they don't care about global changes.
Do they even recognize them as pigeons?
if they are all seen the same, what are the comparison symbols for?
you lie
So in conclusion, beak size >
(°)>
Pigeons are immune to analogue horror
You mean body horror?
You mean woke horror?
You mean being torn apart by dogs?
Some time ago I saw a video of a Pigeon trying to impress a Falcon, perhaps this could be the reason
if i were a pigeon i'd be fucking terrified