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First published online March 16, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 1132-1138 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.003244

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Finding home: the final step of the pigeons' homing process studied with a GPS data logger

Anna Gagliardo^1,*, Paolo Ioalè¹, Maria Savini¹, Hans-Peter Lipp² and Giacomo Dell'Omo²

¹ Dipartimento di Biologia, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy
² Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

View larger version (9K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Initial orientation and homing performance of the free-flying (FF) and prisoner (P) pigeons. Each symbol represents one subject. (A) Initial orientation: the outer arrow represents the home direction; the inner arrow represents the mean vector distribution; N, number of birds; r, mean vector length; a, mean vector direction; hc, homeward component. (B) Homing performance: the homing time (in h); pigeons homed later than the day of the release and birds lost are indicated.

View larger version (72K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Tracks of spontaneous flights around the home loft performed by three pigeons. See text for details.

View larger version (228K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Tracks of free-flying pigeons. (A) #742 red, #745 black, #195 blue, #235 pink, #867 green; (B) #755 red, #701 black, #734 blue, #728 pink, #860 green; (C) #794 blue, #766 red. H, home; RS, release site.

View larger version (221K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Tracks of prisoner pigeons. (A) #733 red, #731 black, #758 blue, #747 pink, #702 green, #854 brown; (B) #751 green, #234 blue, #489 black, #165 red; (C) #706. Other explanations as in Fig. 3.

View larger version (122K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Tracks of prisoner pigeons. (A) #717; (B) #837; (C) #491. Other explanations as in Fig. 3