The Influence of Social Parameters on the Homing Behavior of Pigeons

Mehlhorn, Julia; Rehkaemper, Gerd

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166572

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…Future work tracking metabolic rate of each individual over the course of a year may reveal that birds with high metabolic rates preferentially place themselves at the front of cluster flocks, while simultaneously exhibiting greater exploratory behaviour. Similarly, changes in hormone levels and physiological condition throughout the annual cycle may result in changes to personality traits that in turn may alter willingness to explore [65,66], or cause perturbation to social networks [67,68].…”

Section: (C) Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Portugal

Ricketts

Chappell

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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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'.

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Section: (C) Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Portugal

Ricketts

Chappell

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The breeders generally prefer racing unmated females because they believe these birds have a superior flight performance compared to males. This belief is supported by a study that measured speed and flight efficiency, defined as the linear distance between the release point and home divided by the actual distance traveled by the pigeons between these two points [ 3 ]. In this study, unmated females flying solo averaged a speed of 71 km/h, faster than solo flying males or mated females.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

The Impact of Physical Effort on the Gut Microbiota of Long-Distance Fliers

et al. 2023

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Flying pigeons (Columbia livia) are extensively studied for their physical endurance and superior sense of orientation. The extreme physical endurance of which these birds are capable creates a unique opportunity to investigate the possible impact of long-distance flying on the taxonomy and metabolic function of the gut microbiota. This project was enabled by access to two groups of pigeons raised by the same breeder in the same conditions, except that one group was trained in long-distance flying and participated in multiple races covering a total distance of over 2600 km over a 9-week period. In contrast, the second group did not fly. The fecal microbiota was analyzed using 16S amplicon sequencing, and the taxonomy and metabolic function were inferred from this sequence data. Based on phylogenetic distance and metabolic function, flying and non-flying pigeons were found to harbor distinct bacterial microbiota. The microbiota taxonomy varied extensively between the birds, whereas the inferred metabolic potential was relatively stable. Age was not a significant determinant of the fecal microbiota profile. In flying birds, the metabolic pathways annotated with biosynthesis were enriched, representing 60% of the 20 metabolic pathways that were most closely associated with flying.

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Uncovering Universal Characteristics of Homing Paths using Foraging Robots

Paramanick,

Biswas,

Soni

et al. 2024

PRX Life

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Homing–the incredible ability of animals to navigate back to their homes from unfamiliar places is surprisingly widespread and crucial for their survival. However, the physical understanding of this phenomenon is not yet developed. Here we use a light-controlled robot mimicking foraging and homing behavior to investigate this phenomenon. The robot as a forager is a self-propelled active particle programed to undergo an in-plane active Brownian (AB) motion whose velocity vector v undergoes rotational diffusion of magnitude Dr. During the homing phase, the robot undergoes guided motion toward a positive light gradient aided by repeated reorientations, directing it back to its home. Our key finding is an interesting optimal behavior where the mean homing time becomes independent of Dr beyond a critical value posited as a signature of enhanced efficiency. We develop a first-passage-based theoretical model of homing motion, which elucidates this finding as well as accurately captures quantitative features of the homing trajectories in the form of temporal autocorrelation function of the robot's orientation. Inspired by the paradigm of stochastic resetting processes, we also perform an alternative homing motion in a computer, which integrates an AB motion with course correction resets, corroborating our experimental findings. Finally, we test our model on the publicly available data on homing pigeons and capture similar key characteristics of the homing trajectories. Together, these results offer valuable insights into the physics of homing dynamics, providing a statistical basis for its robustness across the animal kingdom. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

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The Influence of Social Parameters on the Homing Behavior of Pigeons

Cited by 3 publications

References 27 publications

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

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

The Impact of Physical Effort on the Gut Microbiota of Long-Distance Fliers

Uncovering Universal Characteristics of Homing Paths using Foraging Robots

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