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Research Article
Gravity anomalies without geomagnetic disturbances interfere with pigeon homing – a GPS tracking study
Nicole Blaser, Sergei I. Guskov, Vladimir A. Entin, David P. Wolfer, Valeryi A. Kanevskyi, Hans-Peter Lipp
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 4057-4067; doi: 10.1242/jeb.108670
Nicole Blaser
1Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8053 Zurich, Switzerland
2Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, D-78315 Radolfzell, Germany
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Sergei I. Guskov
3Ukrainian Geological Institute, 02088 Kiev, Ukraine
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Vladimir A. Entin
3Ukrainian Geological Institute, 02088 Kiev, Ukraine
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David P. Wolfer
1Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8053 Zurich, Switzerland
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Valeryi A. Kanevskyi
4High-Technologies Institute, 03038 Kiev, Ukraine
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Hans-Peter Lipp
1Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, 8053 Zurich, Switzerland
5Department of Physiology, School of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, KwaZulu-Natal University, Durban 4000, South Africa
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  • For correspondence: hplipp@anatom.uzh.ch
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Abstract

The gravity vector theory postulates that birds determine their position to set a home course by comparing the memorized gravity vector at the home loft with the local gravity vector at the release site, and that they should adjust their flight course to the gravity anomalies encountered. As gravity anomalies are often intermingled with geomagnetic anomalies, we released experienced pigeons from the center of a strong circular gravity anomaly (25 km diameter) not associated with magnetic anomalies and from a geophysical control site, equidistant from the home loft (91 km). After crossing the border zone of the anomaly – expected to be most critical for pigeon navigation – they dispersed significantly more than control birds, except for those having met a gravity anomaly en route. These data increase the credibility of the gravity vector hypothesis.

FOOTNOTES

  • Author contributions

    H.-P.L. and V.K. conceived and designed the experiments; N.B. and H.P.L. performed the experiments; N.B., S.G., H.P.L. and D.P.W. analyzed the data; S.G. and V.E. assembled geophysical maps and analyzed pigeon tracks; N.B. and H.-P.L. wrote the manuscript; H.-P.L. created the supplementary graphs.

  • Competing interests

    The authors declare no competing financial interests.

  • Funding

    Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF 31-122589), SCOPES IZ73Z0_128166 (Swiss-Ukrainian Research Cooperation), and intramural funds of the University of Zürich (F-41002-01-01).

  • Supplementary material

    Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1242/jeb.108670/-/DC1

  • © 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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Keywords

  • Columba livia
  • Orientation
  • Gravity-based navigation
  • Gravity vector
  • Horizontal component
  • Biological GPS
  • Navigation strategies
  • Object following

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Research Article
Gravity anomalies without geomagnetic disturbances interfere with pigeon homing – a GPS tracking study
Nicole Blaser, Sergei I. Guskov, Vladimir A. Entin, David P. Wolfer, Valeryi A. Kanevskyi, Hans-Peter Lipp
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 4057-4067; doi: 10.1242/jeb.108670
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Research Article
Gravity anomalies without geomagnetic disturbances interfere with pigeon homing – a GPS tracking study
Nicole Blaser, Sergei I. Guskov, Vladimir A. Entin, David P. Wolfer, Valeryi A. Kanevskyi, Hans-Peter Lipp
Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 4057-4067; doi: 10.1242/jeb.108670

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