Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans)
Wandering albatrosses routinely forage over thousands of kilometres of open ocean, but the sensory mechanisms used in the food search itself have not been completely elucidated. Recent telemetry studies show that some spatial behaviours of the species are consistent with the ‘multimodal foraging str...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:jexbio:213/4/558 2023-05-15T16:00:56+02:00 Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) Mardon, J. Nesterova, A. P. Traugott, J. Saunders, S. M. Bonadonna, F. 2010-02-15 00:00:00.0 text/html http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/213/4/558 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.032979 en eng Company of Biologists http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/213/4/558 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.032979 Copyright (C) 2010, Company of Biologists Research Articles TEXT 2010 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.032979 2015-03-01T00:31:08Z Wandering albatrosses routinely forage over thousands of kilometres of open ocean, but the sensory mechanisms used in the food search itself have not been completely elucidated. Recent telemetry studies show that some spatial behaviours of the species are consistent with the ‘multimodal foraging strategy’ hypothesis which proposes that birds use a combination of olfactory and visual cues while foraging at sea. The ‘multimodal foraging strategy’ hypothesis, however, still suffers from a lack of experimental evidence, particularly regarding the olfactory capabilities of wandering albatrosses. As an initial step to test the hypothesis, we carried out behavioural experiments exploring the sensory capabilities of adult wandering albatrosses at a breeding colony. Three two-choice tests were designed to investigate the birds' response to olfactory and visual stimuli, individually or in combination. Perception of the different stimuli was assessed by comparing the amount of exploration directed towards an ‘experimental’ display or a ‘control’ display. Our results indicate that birds were able to perceive the three types of stimulus presented: olfactory, visual and combined. Moreover, olfactory and visual cues were found to have additional effects on the exploratory behaviours of males. This simple experimental demonstration of reasonable olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross supports the ‘multimodal foraging strategy’ and is consistent with recent hypotheses of the evolutionary history of procellariiforms. Text Diomedea exulans Wandering Albatross HighWire Press (Stanford University) Journal of Experimental Biology 213 4 558 563 |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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English |
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Research Articles |
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Research Articles Mardon, J. Nesterova, A. P. Traugott, J. Saunders, S. M. Bonadonna, F. Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) |
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Research Articles |
description |
Wandering albatrosses routinely forage over thousands of kilometres of open ocean, but the sensory mechanisms used in the food search itself have not been completely elucidated. Recent telemetry studies show that some spatial behaviours of the species are consistent with the ‘multimodal foraging strategy’ hypothesis which proposes that birds use a combination of olfactory and visual cues while foraging at sea. The ‘multimodal foraging strategy’ hypothesis, however, still suffers from a lack of experimental evidence, particularly regarding the olfactory capabilities of wandering albatrosses. As an initial step to test the hypothesis, we carried out behavioural experiments exploring the sensory capabilities of adult wandering albatrosses at a breeding colony. Three two-choice tests were designed to investigate the birds' response to olfactory and visual stimuli, individually or in combination. Perception of the different stimuli was assessed by comparing the amount of exploration directed towards an ‘experimental’ display or a ‘control’ display. Our results indicate that birds were able to perceive the three types of stimulus presented: olfactory, visual and combined. Moreover, olfactory and visual cues were found to have additional effects on the exploratory behaviours of males. This simple experimental demonstration of reasonable olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross supports the ‘multimodal foraging strategy’ and is consistent with recent hypotheses of the evolutionary history of procellariiforms. |
format |
Text |
author |
Mardon, J. Nesterova, A. P. Traugott, J. Saunders, S. M. Bonadonna, F. |
author_facet |
Mardon, J. Nesterova, A. P. Traugott, J. Saunders, S. M. Bonadonna, F. |
author_sort |
Mardon, J. |
title |
Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) |
title_short |
Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) |
title_full |
Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) |
title_fullStr |
Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) |
title_sort |
insight of scent: experimental evidence of olfactory capabilities in the wandering albatross (diomedea exulans) |
publisher |
Company of Biologists |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/213/4/558 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.032979 |
genre |
Diomedea exulans Wandering Albatross |
genre_facet |
Diomedea exulans Wandering Albatross |
op_relation |
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/213/4/558 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.032979 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2010, Company of Biologists |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.032979 |
container_title |
Journal of Experimental Biology |
container_volume |
213 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
558 |
op_container_end_page |
563 |
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1766396940402032640 |