Distribution of Release-Site Biases Around Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Grüter, M.; Wiltschko, Roswitha; Wiltschko, Wolfgang

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-68616-0_22

Cited by 26 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Wallraff (1979Wallraff ( , 1980Wallraff ( , 1986 devoted much attention to this aspect of pigeons' navigational systems, reaching the conclusion that PCD is a phenomenon present in homing pigeons in many countries, even if it may vary greatly in intensity. On the contrary, Grüter et al (1982) and Wilt- schko & Wiltschko (1985a, b) denied the existence of directional tendencies -particularly in the pigeons housed in their Frankfurt (Germany) loft. Recently Kiepenheuer and coworkers (1993) have distinguished between home-related and home-independent components of pigeon initial orientation, and Wallraff (1994) has shown that initial orientation can be influenced by some landscape features which, sometimes, attract or repel pigeons living in different lofts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preferred compass directions of homing pigeons in Italy

Ioalè

1995

Bolletino di zoologia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preferred compass directions of homing pigeons in Italy

Ioalè

1995

Bolletino di zoologia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However the considerable variability in the strength of the PCD in pigeons from different lofts has led several researchers to doubt the existence of the phenomenon. They attribute the often observed directional biases (so-called release site biases) to local factors or to irregularities in the "navigational map" mechanism (Keeton, 1973;Grüter et al, 1982;Wiltschko & Wiltschko, 1985a, b). Our data support the existence of a directional tendency (PCD) independent of release site information involved in determining the vanishing direction of homing pigeons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial orientation of homing pigeons on the Atlantic coast of Morocco is affected by a strong preferred compass direction (PCD)

Bingman

Agbani²,

Benazzouz

et al. 2004

Italian Journal of Zoology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three seasons of homing pigeon releases were carried out on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco to determine what effect the unusual prevailing wind pattern in this region, essentially continual north winds during the spring and summer, would have on navigational behaviour. Release sites were scattered in a semi-circle from the northeast to southwest of home, but regardless of release site, the pigeons displayed a consistent initial orientation preference to the west-northwest. Although such directional biases in initial orientation, known as Preferred Compass Directions (PCDs), have been well described, we know of no case where a PCD has been shown to be the primary determinant of pigeon initial orientation as was observed in Morocco. We speculate that the strength of the PCD in our coastal Moroccan pigeons is related to the prevailing wind pattern, but in a way we are yet unable to explain.

show abstract

“…Release sites for two datasets ( fig. 1 in Grü ter et al 1982;fig. 8 in Wiltschko 1992) were located around a loft in Frankfurt,Germany (50807.6 0 N and 8839.6 0 E) at distances of 8 -200 km.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do release-site biases reflect response to the Earth's magnetic field during position determination by homing pigeons?

Mora

Walker

2009

Proc. R. Soc. B.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How homing pigeons (Columba livia) return to their loft from distant, unfamiliar sites has long been a mystery. At many release sites, untreated birds consistently vanish from view in a direction different from the home direction, a phenomenon called the release-site bias. These deviations in flight direction have been implicated in the position determination (or map) step of navigation because they may reflect local distortions in information about location that the birds obtain from the geophysical environment at the release site. Here, we performed a post hoc analysis of the relationship between vanishing bearings and local variations in magnetic intensity using previously published datasets for pigeons homing to lofts in Germany. Vanishing bearings of both experienced and naïve birds were strongly associated with magnetic intensity variations at release sites, with 90 per cent of bearings lying within +298 of the magnetic intensity slope or contour direction. Our results (i) demonstrate that pigeons respond in an orderly manner to the local structure of the magnetic field at release sites, (ii) provide a mechanism for the occurrence of release-site biases and (iii) suggest that pigeons may derive spatial information from the magnetic field at the release site that could be used to estimate their current position relative to their loft.

show abstract

Distribution of Release-Site Biases Around Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Cited by 26 publications

References 11 publications

Preferred compass directions of homing pigeons in Italy

Preferred compass directions of homing pigeons in Italy

Initial orientation of homing pigeons on the Atlantic coast of Morocco is affected by a strong preferred compass direction (PCD)

Do release-site biases reflect response to the Earth's magnetic field during position determination by homing pigeons?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About