Abstract
Some authors have proposed that homing pigeons are able to correct the error in orientation following a phase-shift treatment by using the magnetic compass reference. They reported that clock-shifted pigeons bearing magnets display a greater deflection compared to magnetically unmanipulated clock-shifted birds. However, this hypothesis tested by recording pigeons’ vanishing bearings has led to contradictory results. The present study reports pigeons’ tracks recorded with a GPS and shows that clock-shifted pigeons bearing magnets displayed a greater deviation through the whole route compared to the magnetically unmanipulated shifted pigeons. Moreover, the analysis of the tracks shows that the birds belonging to both experimental groups stop in coincidence with their subjective night. When re-starting their journey, the birds corrected the clock-shift induced error in orientation, but the magnetically manipulated pigeons were less efficient in doing so. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that homing pigeons released from unfamiliar location re-orient after clock shift by using the magnetic compass.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Fabio Chini, Roberto Guidi and Andrea Guidi for their help in performing the experiment and Daniele Santerini for his help in the figure preparation.
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Communicated by W. Wiltschko
Electronic supplementary material
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Electronic Material Table 1
Deviation from the home direction displayed by the unshifted control pigeons (C; DOC 46 kb)
Electronic Material Table 2
Deviation from the control group (C) mean direction displayed by the clock-shifted pigeons (S; DOC 54 kb)
Electronic Material Table 3
Deviation from the control group (C) mean direction displayed by the clock-shifted pigeons bearing magnets (SM; DOC 56 kb)
Electronic Material Table 4
Deviation from the control group (C) mean direction displayed by the clock-shifted pigeons (S), expressed as percentage of the expected deflection (DOC 49 kb)
Electronic Material Table 5
Deviation from the control group (C) mean direction displayed by the clock-shifted pigeons bearing magnets (SM), expressed as percentage of the expected deflection (DOC 49 kb)
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Gagliardo, A., Savini, M., De Santis, A. et al. Re-orientation in clock-shifted homing pigeons subjected to a magnetic disturbance: a study with GPS data loggers. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 64, 289–296 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0847-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0847-x