title: Factors reducing the expected deflection in initial orientation in clock-shifted homing pigeons.
abstract: To orient from familiar sites, homing pigeons can rely on both an olfactory map and visual familiar landmarks. The latter can in principle be used in two different ways: either within a topographical map exploited for piloting or in a so-called mosaic map associated with a compass bearing. One way to investigate the matter is to put the compass and the topographical information in conflict by releasing clock-shifted pigeons from familiar locations. Although the compass orientation is in general dominant over a piloting strategy, a stronger or weaker tendency to correct towards the home direction by clock-shifted pigeons released from very familiar sites has often been observed. To investigate which factors are involved in the reduction of the deviation due to clock-shift, we performed a series of releases with intact and anosmic pigeons from familiar sites in unshifted and clock-shifted conditions and a series of releases from the same sites with naive clock-shifted birds. Our data suggest that the following factors have a role in reducing deviation due to the clock-shift: familiarity with the release site, the lack of olfactory information and some unknown site-dependent features.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Etologia, Ecologia ed Evoluzione, Via Volta 6, I-56126 Pisa, Italy. annag@discau.unipi.it
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gagliardo
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Odetti
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ioalè
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D010856:Columbidae / Q000502:physiology*; D006702:Homing Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology