Boldness traits, not dominance, predict exploratory flight range and homing behaviour in homing pigeons

Abstract

Group living has been proposed to yield benefits that enhance fitness above the level that would be achieved through living as solitary individuals. Dominance hierarchies occur commonly in these social assemblages, and result, by definition, in resources not being evenly distributed between group members. Determinants of rank within a dominance hierarchy can be associated with morphological characteristics, previous experience of the individual, or personality traits such as exploration tendencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether greater exploration and positive responses to novel objects in homing pigeons () measured under laboratory conditions were associated with (i) greater initial exploration of the local area around the home loft during spontaneous exploration flights (SEF), (ii) faster and more efficient homing flights when released from further afield, and (iii) whether the traits of greater exploration and more positive responses to novel objects were more likely to be exhibited by the more dominant individuals within the group. There was no relationship between laboratory-based novel object exploration and position within the dominance hierarchy. Pigeons that were neophobic under laboratory conditions did not explore the local area during SEF opportunities. When released from sites further from home, neophobic pigeons took longer routes to home compared to those birds that had not exhibited neophobic traits under laboratory conditions, and had spontaneously explored to a greater extent. The lack of exploration in the neophobic birds is likely to have resulted in the increased costs of homing following release: unfamiliarity with the landscape likely led to the greater distances travelled and less efficient routes taken. Birds that demonstrated a lack of neophobia were not the dominant individuals inside the loft, and thus would have less access to resources such as food and potentially mates. However, a lack of neophobia makes the subordinate position possible, because subordinate birds that incur high travel costs would become calorie restricted and lose condition. Our results address emerging questions linking individual variation in behaviour with energetics and fitness consequences.This article is part of the themed issue 'Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals'.

Personality and the collective: bold homing pigeons occupy higher leadership ranks in flocks

“…For example, our results suggested that bold pigeons are, on average, faster individual fliers, so leaders among birds may be better at escaping from predators than followers. In fact, a recent study has shown that bold pigeons who demonstrated a lack of neophobia tend to develop more efficient routes and thus fly home faster during solo homing flights than shy birds who are neophobic [40]. Secondly, raptor attack strategies may be different from those used by aquatic predators.…”

Speed consensus and the ‘Goldilocks principle’ in flocking birds (Columba livia)

“…Homing pigeons (N = 18), all aged 1-1.5 years, were used in the experiments. They were housed in two separate groups of nine, in purpose-built lofts (7 x 6 ft) at Royal Holloway, University of London, U.K. (see Portugal, Ricketts, et al, 2017;Portugal, Sivess, et al, 2017 for further husbandry details). Food (Johnstone & Jeff Four Season Pigeon Corn, Gilberdyke, U.K.), water and grit (Versele-Laga-Colombine Grit and Redstone, Deinze, Belgium) were provided ad libitum.…”

Head-mounted sensors reveal visual attention of free-flying homing pigeons

“…Our first goal was to establish a new method of tracking visually guided behavior in pigeons in the field through simultaneous recordings of head movements using an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and flight trajectories using global positioning system (GPS) during homing flights. Although lightweight GPS devices have become well established as a reliable technology for tracking moment-tomoment changes in the flight trajectories of pigeons (Biro et al, 2004;Dennis et al, 2007;Gagliardo et al, 2011;Guilford et al, 2004;Lipp et al, 2004;Martinho et al, 2015;Portugal et al, 2017;Schiffner and Wiltschko, 2009), the use of an IMU to track head movement has never been attempted in the field. IMUs are equipped with an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a magnetometer, and hence can provide highly accurate reconstructions of motion and turns; they can also provide an estimate of absolute orientation with respect to gravity and the Earth's magnetic field (e.g.…”