Evidence for nest-odour recognition in two species of diving petrel
Evidence for nest-odour recognition in two species of diving petrel
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.00610
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发表时间：
2003-10-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Nevitt, GA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bonadonna, F;Cunningham, GB;Nevitt, GA
几乎每一种原细胞形物种的嗅觉似乎都高度适应于在海上觅食，但潜水海燕的嗅觉却令人费解。这些鸟在相当深的地方觅食，不会被海上的气味所吸引。然而，最近有几种procellariiform物种被证明是通过气味重新定位它们的筑巢洞穴，这表明这些鸟类使用嗅觉签名来识别家洞。我们想知道潜水海燕是否以这种方式利用气味。我们测试了常见的潜水海燕Pelecanoides urinatrix和南格鲁吉亚潜水海燕Petecanoides georgicus，以确定潜水海燕是否能够识别自己的洞穴气味。为了验证该方法的有效性，我们还测试了一种已知使用嗅觉进行觅食和巢穴识别的鸟类，薄嘴朊病毒Pachyptila belcheri。在两个选择的T-迷宫试验中，我们发现，对于所有物种，个人显着喜欢自己的巢材料的气味，同种。我们的研究结果强烈表明，个人特定的气味提供了一个嗅觉签名，让穴居海燕认识到自己的洞穴。由于这种能力似乎在潜水海燕中得到了很好的发展，我们的数据进一步暗示了这两个物种对嗅觉的新适应，这两个物种被认为缺乏发达的嗅觉。
Nearly every procellariiform species, the sense of smell appears to be highly adapted for foraging at sea, but the sense of smell among the diving petrels is enigmatic. These birds forage at considerable depth and are not attracted to odour cues at sea. However, several procellariiform species have recently been shown to relocate their nesting burrows by scent, suggesting that these birds use an olfactory signature to identify the home burrow. We wanted to know whether diving petrels use smell in this way. We tested the common diving petrel Pelecanoides urinatrix and the South-Georgian diving petrel Petecanoides georgicus to determine whether diving petrels were able to recognise their burrow by scent alone. To verify the efficacy of the method, we also tested a bird that is known to use olfaction for foraging and nest recognition, the thin-billed prion Pachyptila belcheri. In two-choice T-maze trials, we found that, for all species, individuals significantly preferred the odour of their own nest material to that of a conspecific. Our findings strongly suggest that an individual-specific odour provides an olfactory signature that allows burrowing petrels to recognize their own burrow. Since this ability seems to be well developed in diving petrels, our data further implicate a novel adaptation for olfaction in these two species that have been presumed to lack a well-developed sense of smell.