Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun

Applying a magnetic field of 0.1 Gs (1 gauss = 10 -4 T) to the heads of pigeons homing from unfamiliar release sites significantly increased the scatter of the birds' vanishing bearings. A magnetic field of 0.3 gauss caused no difference between the orientation of birds wearing coils with eithe...

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Main Author: WALCOTT, CHARLES
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Company of Biologists 1977
Subjects:
Articles
South Pole
South pole
Online Access:http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/70/1/105
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record_format openpolar
spelling fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:jexbio:70/1/105 2023-05-15T18:22:16+02:00 Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun WALCOTT, CHARLES 1977-10-01 00:00:00.0 text/html http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/70/1/105 en eng Company of Biologists http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/70/1/105 Copyright (C) 1977, Company of Biologists Articles TEXT 1977 fthighwire 2013-05-28T04:21:46Z Applying a magnetic field of 0.1 Gs (1 gauss = 10 -4 T) to the heads of pigeons homing from unfamiliar release sites significantly increased the scatter of the birds' vanishing bearings. A magnetic field of 0.3 gauss caused no difference between the orientation of birds wearing coils with either their north or south pole up. But a field of 0.6 gauss (equal to that of the Earth) produced a small difference in the vanishing bearings of the two groups. Since an applied magnetic field has an effect on pigeon orientation under sun, it appears that pigeons do not simply switch between a magnetic and a sun compass, but that there is some interaction between the two systems. Text South pole HighWire Press (Stanford University) South Pole
institution Open Polar
collection HighWire Press (Stanford University)
op_collection_id fthighwire
language English
topic Articles
spellingShingle Articles
WALCOTT, CHARLES
Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun
topic_facet Articles
description Applying a magnetic field of 0.1 Gs (1 gauss = 10 -4 T) to the heads of pigeons homing from unfamiliar release sites significantly increased the scatter of the birds' vanishing bearings. A magnetic field of 0.3 gauss caused no difference between the orientation of birds wearing coils with either their north or south pole up. But a field of 0.6 gauss (equal to that of the Earth) produced a small difference in the vanishing bearings of the two groups. Since an applied magnetic field has an effect on pigeon orientation under sun, it appears that pigeons do not simply switch between a magnetic and a sun compass, but that there is some interaction between the two systems.
format Text
author WALCOTT, CHARLES
author_facet WALCOTT, CHARLES
author_sort WALCOTT, CHARLES
title Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun
title_short Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun
title_full Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun
title_fullStr Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun
title_full_unstemmed Magnetic Fields and the Orientation of Homing Pigeons under Sun
title_sort magnetic fields and the orientation of homing pigeons under sun
publisher Company of Biologists
publishDate 1977
url http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/70/1/105
geographic South Pole
geographic_facet South Pole
genre South pole
genre_facet South pole
op_relation http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/70/1/105
op_rights Copyright (C) 1977, Company of Biologists
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