Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms

Abstract After foraging in the open ocean pelagic birds can pinpoint their breeding colonies, located on remote islands in visually featureless seascapes. This remarkable ability to navigate over vast distances has been attributed to the birds being able to learn an olfactory map on the basis of win...

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Autores principales: Milo Abolaffio, Andy M. Reynolds, Jacopo G. Cecere, Vitor H. Paiva, Stefano Focardi
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2018
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/2bf7e69149dd47c290bd6493f57cc8de
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:2bf7e69149dd47c290bd6493f57cc8de2021-12-02T11:41:26ZOlfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms10.1038/s41598-018-29919-02045-2322https://doaj.org/article/2bf7e69149dd47c290bd6493f57cc8de2018-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29919-0https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract After foraging in the open ocean pelagic birds can pinpoint their breeding colonies, located on remote islands in visually featureless seascapes. This remarkable ability to navigate over vast distances has been attributed to the birds being able to learn an olfactory map on the basis of wind-borne odors. Odor-cued navigation has been linked mechanistically to displacements with exponentially-truncated power-law distributions. Such distributions were previously identified in three species of Atlantic and Mediterranean shearwaters but crucially it has not been demonstrated that these distributions are wind-speed dependent, as expected if navigation was olfactory-cued. Here we show that the distributions are wind-speed dependent, in accordance with theoretical expectations. We thereby link movement patterns to underlying generative mechanisms. Our novel analysis is consistent with the results of more traditional, non-mathematical, invasive methods and thereby provides independent evidence for olfactory-cued navigation in wild birds. Our non-invasive diagnostic tool can be applied across taxa, potentially allowing for the assessment of its pervasiveness.Milo AbolaffioAndy M. ReynoldsJacopo G. CecereVitor H. PaivaStefano FocardiNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2018)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Milo Abolaffio
Andy M. Reynolds
Jacopo G. Cecere
Vitor H. Paiva
Stefano Focardi
Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
description Abstract After foraging in the open ocean pelagic birds can pinpoint their breeding colonies, located on remote islands in visually featureless seascapes. This remarkable ability to navigate over vast distances has been attributed to the birds being able to learn an olfactory map on the basis of wind-borne odors. Odor-cued navigation has been linked mechanistically to displacements with exponentially-truncated power-law distributions. Such distributions were previously identified in three species of Atlantic and Mediterranean shearwaters but crucially it has not been demonstrated that these distributions are wind-speed dependent, as expected if navigation was olfactory-cued. Here we show that the distributions are wind-speed dependent, in accordance with theoretical expectations. We thereby link movement patterns to underlying generative mechanisms. Our novel analysis is consistent with the results of more traditional, non-mathematical, invasive methods and thereby provides independent evidence for olfactory-cued navigation in wild birds. Our non-invasive diagnostic tool can be applied across taxa, potentially allowing for the assessment of its pervasiveness.
format article
author Milo Abolaffio
Andy M. Reynolds
Jacopo G. Cecere
Vitor H. Paiva
Stefano Focardi
author_facet Milo Abolaffio
Andy M. Reynolds
Jacopo G. Cecere
Vitor H. Paiva
Stefano Focardi
author_sort Milo Abolaffio
title Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
title_short Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
title_full Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
title_fullStr Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
title_full_unstemmed Olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
title_sort olfactory-cued navigation in shearwaters: linking movement patterns to mechanisms
publisher Nature Portfolio
publishDate 2018
url https://doaj.org/article/2bf7e69149dd47c290bd6493f57cc8de
work_keys_str_mv AT miloabolaffio olfactorycuednavigationinshearwaterslinkingmovementpatternstomechanisms
AT andymreynolds olfactorycuednavigationinshearwaterslinkingmovementpatternstomechanisms
AT jacopogcecere olfactorycuednavigationinshearwaterslinkingmovementpatternstomechanisms
AT vitorhpaiva olfactorycuednavigationinshearwaterslinkingmovementpatternstomechanisms
AT stefanofocardi olfactorycuednavigationinshearwaterslinkingmovementpatternstomechanisms
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