Data from: Identifying volatile organic compounds used for olfactory navigation by homing pigeons

Zannoni N, Wikelski M, Gagliardo A, Raza A, Kramer S, Seghetti C, Wang N, Edtbauer A, Williams J. 2020. Data from: Identifying volatile organic compounds used for olfactory navigation by homing pigeons. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.7n747m19

Abstract

Many bird species have the ability to navigate home after being brought to a remote, even unfamiliar location. Environmental odours have been demonstrated to be critical to homeward navigation in over 40 years of experiments, yet the chemical identity of the odours has remained unknown. In this study, we investigate potential chemical navigational cues by measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs): at the birds’ home-loft; in selected regional forest environments; and from an aircraft at 180 m. The measurements showed clear regional, horizontal and vertical spatial gradients that can form the basis of an olfactory map for marine emissions (dimethyl sulphide, DMS), biogenic compounds (terpenoids) and anthropogenic mixed air (aromatic compounds), and temporal changes consistent with a sea-breeze system. Air masses trajectories are used to examine GPS tracks from released birds, suggesting that local DMS concentrations alter their flight directions in predictable ways. This dataset reveals multiple regional-scale real-world chemical gradients that can form the basis of an olfactory map suitable for homing pigeons.

Keywords

Columba livia,animal navigation,animal tracking,Columba livia,GPS logger,homing pigeon,olfaction,volatile organic compound

Taxa

Taxon

Columba livia

Common Pigeon, Rock Dove, Rock Pigeon

Sensors

Sensor

GPS

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72525-2

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.1147

BibTex

@misc{001/1_7n747m19,
  title = {Data from: Identifying volatile organic compounds used for olfactory navigation by homing pigeons},
  author = {Zannoni, N and Wikelski, M and Gagliardo, A and Raza, A and Kramer, S and Seghetti, C and Wang, N and Edtbauer, A and Williams, J},
  year = {2020},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.7n747m19},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.7n747m19},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.7n747m19
T1  - Data from: Identifying volatile organic compounds used for olfactory navigation by homing pigeons
AU  - Zannoni, Nora
AU  - Wikelski, Martin
AU  - Gagliardo, Anna
AU  - Raza, Atif
AU  - Kramer, Stefan
AU  - Seghetti, Chiara
AU  - Wang, Nijing
AU  - Edtbauer, Achim
AU  - Williams, Jonathan
Y1  - 2020/10/12
KW  - Columba livia
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal navigation
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - Columba livia
KW  - GPS logger
KW  - homing pigeon
KW  - olfaction
KW  - volatile organic compound
KW  - Columba livia
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.7n747m19
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.7n747m19
ER  -

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