Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans)

Abstract

SUMMARYWandering albatrosses routinely forage over thousands of kilometres of open ocean, but the sensory mechanisms used in the food search itself have not been completely elucidated. Recent telemetry studies show that some spatial behaviours of the species are consistent with the 'multimodal foraging strategy' hypothesis which proposes that birds use a combination of olfactory and visual cues while foraging at sea. The 'multimodal foraging strategy' hypothesis, however, still suffers from a lack of experimental evidence, particularly regarding the olfactory capabilities of wandering albatrosses. As an initial step to test the hypothesis, we carried out behavioural experiments exploring the sensory capabilities of adult wandering albatrosses at a breeding colony. Three two-choice tests were designed to investigate the birds' response to olfactory and visual stimuli, individually or in combination. Perception of the different stimuli was assessed by comparing the amount of exploration directed towards an 'experimental' display or a 'control' display. Our results indicate that birds were able to perceive the three types of stimulus presented: olfactory, visual and combined. Moreover, olfactory and visual cues were found to have additional effects on the exploratory behaviours of males. This simple experimental demonstration of reasonable olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross supports the 'multimodal foraging strategy' and is consistent with recent hypotheses of the evolutionary history of procellariiforms.

Chemical kin label in seabirds

“…In spite of a lower Results from experiment 1 clearly suggest the existence of an individual olfactory signature in blue petrels. This is consistent with both chemical studies [17,23] and behavioural studies on partner-odour recognition [13]. The originality of our study is experiment 2, where, for the first time to our knowledge, we demonstrate that birds may exhibit an olfactory kin label.…”

Understanding movements of organisms: it's time to abandon the Lévy foraging hypothesis

“…This would reveal that movements of bees within and between flower-bearing plants typically occur at a spatial scale commensurate with their abilities to perceive flowers at a distance (Pyke 1978b(Pyke , 1979. It might achieve a similar result for movements of birds, such as albatrosses, that can locate food at considerable distances through sight and odour (Mardon et al 2010). Of course, estimating the distance limits of perception may be difficult for some organisms.…”

“…It might achieve a similar result for movements of birds, such as albatrosses, that can locate food at considerable distances through sight and odour (Mardon et al . ). Of course, estimating the distance limits of perception may be difficult for some organisms.…”

Mutual influences between the main olfactory and vomeronasal systems in development and evolution

“…Although the proportion of intact OR genes in birds is lower than in lizards, a recent expansion of a bird-specific OR gene family (Steiger et al, 2008), in addition to higher rates of OR diversification in nocturnal terrestrial birds (Steiger et al, 2009), suggest that olfaction in birds is more important than commonly thought (Figure 6A). In fact, olfaction in birds participates in recognition of gender (Balthazart and Taziaux, 2009) and individual identity of conspecifics (Coffin et al, 2011), as well as in foraging (Mardon et al, 2010) and navigation behavior (Gagliardo et al, 2011). …”