Journal article
Olfaction and topography, but not magnetic cues, control navigation in a pelagic seabird: displacements with shearwaters in the Mediterranean Sea
- Abstract:
- Pelagic seabirds wander the open oceans then return accurately to their habitual nest-sites. We investigated the effects of sensory manipulation on oceanic navigation in Scopoli's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea) breeding at Pianosa island (Italy), by displacing them 400 km from their colony and tracking them. A recent experiment on Atlantic shearwaters (Cory's shearwater, Calonectris borealis) breeding in the Azores indicated a crucial role of olfaction over the open ocean, but left open the question of whether birds might navigate by topographical landmark cues when available. Our experiment was conducted in the Mediterranean sea, where the availability of topographical cues may provide an alternative navigational mechanism for homing. Magnetically disturbed shearwaters and control birds oriented homeward even when the coast was not visible and rapidly homed. Anosmic shearwaters oriented in a direction significantly different from the home direction when in open sea. After having approached a coastline their flight path changed from convoluted to homeward oriented, so that most of them eventually reached home. Beside confirming that magnetic cues appear unimportant for oceanic navigation by seabirds, our results support the crucial role of olfactory cues for birds' navigation and reveal that anosmic shearwaters are able to home eventually by following coastal features.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 874.6KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/srep16486
Authors
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Journal:
- Scientific reports More from this journal
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 1
- Pages:
- 16486
- Publication date:
- 2015-11-09
- Acceptance date:
- 2015-10-14
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2045-2322
- ISSN:
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2045-2322
- Pmid:
-
26548946
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:579464
- UUID:
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uuid:9cfb6ef2-5435-4a72-8b2a-260a4961bc26
- Local pid:
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pubs:579464
- Source identifiers:
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579464
- Deposit date:
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2017-06-27
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Pollonara et al
- Copyright date:
- 2015
- Notes:
-
© The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons
license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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