Data from: Pigeons remember visual landmarks after one release and rely upon them more if they are anosmic

Gagliardo A, Pollonara E, Wikelski M. 2020. Data from: Pigeons remember visual landmarks after one release and rely upon them more if they are anosmic. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.702j854s

Abstract

Anosmic birds' homing ability is impaired when challenged to navigate over unfamiliar areas. Nevertheless, anosmic pigeons, Columba livia, show unimpaired navigation when released within a familiar area, suggesting that they may rely on familiar visual landmarks for navigation. However, direct evidence for the reliance on familiar visual landmarks during homing in anosmic birds has never been provided. In this study we tracked pigeons subjected singly to one training flight from each of three locations. Prior to their second release from each site, half of the birds were made anosmic while the others were not manipulated. The level of route fidelity was analysed separately for three phases of the homing process, in which familiar visual cues may have different relevance and may be used within different cognitive strategies: (1) ‘Initial decision making’; (2) ‘En route navigation’; (3) ‘Local navigation around home’. Compared to control birds, the anosmic birds flew significantly closer to previously overflown locations in the ‘En route navigation’ phase, while no difference in route fidelity emerged during phases (1) and (3). Our results showed that a single experience is sufficient for pigeons to learn release site features, and that familiar visual landmarks constitute a critical source of navigational information in olfactorily deprived birds during the homing process.

Keywords

Columba livia,animal navigation,animal tracking,Columba livia,GPS logger,homing pigeons,olfaction

Taxa

Taxon

Columba livia

Common Pigeon, Rock Dove, Rock Pigeon

Sensors

Sensor

GPS

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.05.009

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.1070

BibTex

@misc{001/1_702j854s,
  title = {Data from: Pigeons remember visual landmarks after one release and rely upon them more if they are anosmic},
  author = {Gagliardo, A and Pollonara, E and Wikelski, M},
  year = {2020},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.702j854s},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.702j854s},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.702j854s
T1  - Data from: Pigeons remember visual landmarks after one release and rely upon them more if they are anosmic
AU  - Gagliardo, Anna
AU  - Pollonara, Enrica
AU  - Wikelski, Martin
Y1  - 2020/09/24
KW  - Columba livia
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal navigation
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - Columba livia
KW  - GPS logger
KW  - homing pigeons
KW  - olfaction
KW  - Columba livia
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.702j854s
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.702j854s
ER  -

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