Premium
Pigeon Homing: Does Early Experience Determine what Cues are Used to Navigate?
Author(s) -
Papi F.,
Gagliardo A.,
Fiaschi V.,
Dall'Antonia P.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1989.tb00500.x
Subject(s) - homing (biology) , olfactory cues , sensory cue , communication , psychology , biology , cognitive psychology , ecology , olfaction
To test the hypothesis that early experience might determine the nature of the cues used to navigate, homing pigeons were made anosmic by nerve section before they could experience the natural odours in the region of the loft. They were allowed to make free flights and trained by flock releases with intact controls. Next they were tested and compared with intact controls as well as birds made temporarily anosmic just before the experiment. Initial orientation and homing performance of the experimental birds were very poor and showed that the pigeons were unable to acquire an alternative mechanism of navigation.