Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans
International audience Wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) forage over thousands of square kilometers of open ocean for patchily distributed live prey and carrion. These birds have large olfactory bulbs and respond to fishy-scented odors in at-sea trials, suggesting that olfaction plays a role...
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ftunivnantes:oai:HAL:hal-00267351v1 2023-05-15T16:00:55+02:00 Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans Nevitt, Gabrielle A. Losekoot, Marcel Weimerskirch, Henri Section of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior University of California Davis (UC Davis) University of California (UC)-University of California (UC) Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) Department of Avian Sciences Bogeda Marine Laboratory Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2008-03-25 https://hal.science/hal-00267351 en eng HAL CCSD National Academy of Sciences hal-00267351 https://hal.science/hal-00267351 ISSN: 0027-8424 EISSN: 1091-6490 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America https://hal.science/hal-00267351 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008, 105 (12), pp.4576-4581 area-restricted search foraging olfaction subantarctic plume tracking [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2008 ftunivnantes 2023-02-08T06:21:59Z International audience Wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) forage over thousands of square kilometers of open ocean for patchily distributed live prey and carrion. These birds have large olfactory bulbs and respond to fishy-scented odors in at-sea trials, suggesting that olfaction plays a role in natural foraging behavior. With the advent of new, fine-scale tracking technologies, we are beginning to explore how birds track prey in the pelagic environment, and we relate these observations to models of odor transport in natural situations. These models suggest that odors emanating from prey will tend to disperse laterally and downwind of the odor source and acquire an irregular and patchy concentration distribution due to turbulent transport. For a seabird foraging over the ocean, this scenario suggests that olfactory search would be facilitated by crosswind flight to optimize the probability of encountering a plume emanating from a prey item, followed by upwind, zigzag flight to localize the prey. By contrast, birds approaching prey by sight would be expected to fly directly to a prey item, irrespective of wind direction. Using high-precision global positioning system (GPS) loggers in conjunction with stomach temperature recorders to simultaneously monitor feeding events, we confirm these predictions in freely ranging wandering albatrosses. We found that initial olfactory detection was implicated in nearly half (46.8%) of all flown approaches preceding prey-capture events, accounting for 45.5% of total prey mass captured by in-flight foraging. These results offer insights into the sensory basis for area-restricted search at the large spatial scales of the open ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper Diomedea exulans Wandering Albatross Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnantes |
language |
English |
topic |
area-restricted search foraging olfaction subantarctic plume tracking [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes |
spellingShingle |
area-restricted search foraging olfaction subantarctic plume tracking [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes Nevitt, Gabrielle A. Losekoot, Marcel Weimerskirch, Henri Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans |
topic_facet |
area-restricted search foraging olfaction subantarctic plume tracking [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology [SDE.ES]Environmental Sciences/Environmental and Society [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes |
description |
International audience Wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) forage over thousands of square kilometers of open ocean for patchily distributed live prey and carrion. These birds have large olfactory bulbs and respond to fishy-scented odors in at-sea trials, suggesting that olfaction plays a role in natural foraging behavior. With the advent of new, fine-scale tracking technologies, we are beginning to explore how birds track prey in the pelagic environment, and we relate these observations to models of odor transport in natural situations. These models suggest that odors emanating from prey will tend to disperse laterally and downwind of the odor source and acquire an irregular and patchy concentration distribution due to turbulent transport. For a seabird foraging over the ocean, this scenario suggests that olfactory search would be facilitated by crosswind flight to optimize the probability of encountering a plume emanating from a prey item, followed by upwind, zigzag flight to localize the prey. By contrast, birds approaching prey by sight would be expected to fly directly to a prey item, irrespective of wind direction. Using high-precision global positioning system (GPS) loggers in conjunction with stomach temperature recorders to simultaneously monitor feeding events, we confirm these predictions in freely ranging wandering albatrosses. We found that initial olfactory detection was implicated in nearly half (46.8%) of all flown approaches preceding prey-capture events, accounting for 45.5% of total prey mass captured by in-flight foraging. These results offer insights into the sensory basis for area-restricted search at the large spatial scales of the open ocean. |
author2 |
Section of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior University of California Davis (UC Davis) University of California (UC)-University of California (UC) Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) Department of Avian Sciences Bogeda Marine Laboratory Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nevitt, Gabrielle A. Losekoot, Marcel Weimerskirch, Henri |
author_facet |
Nevitt, Gabrielle A. Losekoot, Marcel Weimerskirch, Henri |
author_sort |
Nevitt, Gabrielle A. |
title |
Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans |
title_short |
Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans |
title_full |
Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans |
title_fullStr |
Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans |
title_sort |
evidence for olfactory search in wandering albatross, diomedea exulans |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00267351 |
genre |
Diomedea exulans Wandering Albatross |
genre_facet |
Diomedea exulans Wandering Albatross |
op_source |
ISSN: 0027-8424 EISSN: 1091-6490 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America https://hal.science/hal-00267351 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008, 105 (12), pp.4576-4581 |
op_relation |
hal-00267351 https://hal.science/hal-00267351 |
_version_ |
1766396924936585216 |