Electron microscopy image of pigeon liver tissue shows hepatic macrophage (blue) in contact to nerve fiber (yellow), which enables them to transmit (“magnetic”) information to the pigeon brain.
Lisowski et al. (2026) Science
All the pigeons in the control group successfully navigated their way back to the aviary; those that received the injections lost their sense of direction and did not return home until the following day, when the sun was out. A follow-up experiment with the clodronate-treated pigeons under sunny conditions did not affect their homing ability because they were able to use solar cues. This suggests that pigeons use a combination of the sun’s orientation and magnetic sensing to navigate—and the latter is a previously unsuspected mechanism for magnetic perception in animals.
The authors think these results could also explain magnetoreception in bats and blind mole rats, which don’t have functioning cryptochromes or live in environments with little to no light. They might also apply to certain species of shark capable of swimming in straight lines over long distances—such as scalloped hammerhead sharks, which seem to orient themselves using seamounts found to have geomagnetic anomalies. “Beyond magneto reception, our findings contribute to a broader emerging concept: tissue-resident macrophages can function as peripheral sensory cells, providing direct, biologically meaningful feedback to the brain,” the authors concluded.
