Testing the role of sensory systems in the migratory heading of a songbird

Holland, Richard A.; Thorup, Kasper; Gagliardo, Anna; Bisson, Isabelle-Anne; Knecht, Elise M. H.; Mizrahi, David; Wikelski, Martin

doi:10.1242/jeb.034504

Cited by 104 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…Such procedures impair navigation even when visual cues are available (59). Although homing pigeons also orient by using geomagnetic fields (60), this input appears to be weighted less heavily than olfaction in experimentally displaced homing pigeons (61) and in migrating songbirds (62). Such experimental evidence for the primacy of olfactory inputs in navigation, across multiple diurnal bird orders, lends strong credence to the OS hypothesis.…”

Section: Birdsmentioning

confidence: 77%

From chemotaxis to the cognitive map: The function of olfaction

Jacobs

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

170

176

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A paradox of vertebrate brain evolution is the unexplained variability in the size of the olfactory bulb (OB), in contrast to other brain regions, which scale predictably with brain size. Such variability appears to be the result of selection for olfactory function, yet there is no obvious concordance that would predict the causal relationship between OB size and behavior. This discordance may derive from assuming the primary function of olfaction is odorant discrimination and acuity. If instead the primary function of olfaction is navigation, i.e., predicting odorant distributions in time and space, variability in absolute OB size could be ascribed and explained by variability in navigational demand. This olfactory spatial hypothesis offers a single functional explanation to account for patterns of olfactory system scaling in vertebrates, the primacy of olfaction in spatial navigation, even in visual specialists, and proposes an evolutionary scenario to account for the convergence in olfactory structure and function across protostomes and deuterostomes. In addition, the unique percepts of olfaction may organize odorant information in a parallel map structure. This could have served as a scaffold for the evolution of the parallel map structure of the mammalian hippocampus, and possibly the arthropod mushroom body, and offers an explanation for similar flexible spatial navigation strategies in arthropods and vertebrates.sensory | memory | orientation | limbic

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Section: Birdsmentioning

confidence: 77%

From chemotaxis to the cognitive map: The function of olfaction

Jacobs

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

170

176

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“…Olfactory signals play an important role in orientation (pigeons: [3]; catbirds: [5]; Antarctic prions: [6]; blue petrels: [7][8]) and social communication, especially in procellariiformes [9 -11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Odour-based natal nest recognition in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), a colony-breeding songbird

Caspers

Krause

2010

Biol. Lett.

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Passerine birds have an extensive repertoire of olfactory receptor genes. However, the circumstances in which passerine birds use olfactory signals are poorly understood. The aim of this study is to investigate whether olfactory cues play a role in natal nest recognition in fledged juvenile passerines. The natal nest provides fledglings with a safe place for sleeping and parental food provisioning. There is a particular demand in colony-breeding birds for fledglings to be able to identify their nests because many pairs breed close to each other. Olfactory orientation might thus be of special importance for the fledglings, because they do not have a visual representation of the nest site and its position in the colony when leaving the nest for the first time. We investigated the role of olfaction in nest recognition in zebra finches, which breed in dense colonies of up to 50 pairs. We performed odour preference tests, in which we offered zebra finch fledglings their own natal nest odour versus foreign nest odour. Zebra finch fledglings significantly preferred their own natal nest odour, indicating that fledglings of a colony breeding songbird may use olfactory cues for nest recognition.

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“…The only previous tracking study on the effect of magnetic pulses on bird navigation was conducted on catbirds displaced during migration (Holland et al, 2009) and tracked by aerial survey from a light aircraft. This study also failed to find an effect on birds' orientation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A magnetic pulse does not affect homing pigeon navigation: a GPS tracking experiment

Holland

Filannino

Gagliardo

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYThe cues by which homing pigeons are able to return to a home loft after displacement to unfamiliar release sites remain debated. A number of experiments in which migratory birds have been treated with a magnetic pulse have produced a disruption in their orientation, which argues that a ferrimagnetic sense is used for navigation in birds. One previous experiment has also indicated an effect of magnetic pulses on homing pigeon navigation, although with inconsistent results. Previous studies have shown that some magnetic-related information is transmitted by the trigeminal nerve to the brain in some bird species, including the homing pigeon. The function of this information is still unclear. It has been suggested that this information is important for navigation. Previous studies with trigeminal nerve lesioned homing pigeons have clearly shown that the lack of trigeminally mediated information, even if magnetic, is not crucial for homing performance. However, this result does not completely exclude the possibility that other ferrimagnetic receptors in the homing pigeon play a role in navigation. Additionally, recent studies on homing pigeons suggested the existence of a ferrimagnetic sense in a novel location presumably located in the inner ear (lagena). In the present study, we tested whether any ferrimagnetic magnetoreceptors, irrespective of their location in the birdʼs head, are involved in pigeonsʼ homing. To do this, we treated homing pigeons with a strong magnetic pulse before release, tracked birds with GPS loggers and analyzed whether this treatment affected homing performance. In the single previous magnetic pulse experiment on homing pigeons, only initial orientation at a release site was considered and the results were inconsistent. We observed no effect of the magnetic pulse at any of the sites used on initial orientation, homing performance, tortuosity or track efficiency, which does not support a role for the ferrimagnetic sense in homing pigeon navigation, at least not in this geographic area, where magnetic field variations are in the region of 200nT intensity and 0.8deg inclination. Supplementary material available online at

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Testing the role of sensory systems in the migratory heading of a songbird

Cited by 104 publications

References 50 publications

From chemotaxis to the cognitive map: The function of olfaction

From chemotaxis to the cognitive map: The function of olfaction

Odour-based natal nest recognition in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), a colony-breeding songbird

A magnetic pulse does not affect homing pigeon navigation: a GPS tracking experiment

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