Mann, RP, Armstrong, C, Meade, J et al. (3 more authors) (2014) Landscape complexity influences routememory formation in navigating pigeons. Biology Letters, 10 (1). ARTN 20130885. ISSN 1744-9561
Abstract
Observations of the flight paths of pigeons navigating from familiar locations have shown that these birds are able to learn and subsequently follow habitual routes home. Ithas been suggested that navigation alongthese routes is basedon the recognition of memorized visual landmarks. Previous research has identified the effect of landmarks on flight path structure, and thus the locations of potentially salient sites. Pigeons have also been observed to be particularly attracted to strong linear features in the landscape, such as roads and rivers. However, a more general understanding of the specific characteristics of the landscape that facilitate route learning has remained out of reach. In this study, we identify landscape complexity as a key predictor of the fidelity to the habitual route, and thus conclude that pigeons form route memories most strongly in regions where the landscape complexity is neither too great nor too low. Our results imply that pigeons process their visual environment on a characteristic spatial scalewhile navigating andcan explain the different degrees of success in reproducing route learning in different geographical locations.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited |
Keywords: | Pigeon; Navigation; Homing; Familiar area; Landmark; Vision |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Statistics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Nov 2015 14:04 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jan 2018 11:08 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0885 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Royal Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0885 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:89137 |
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