Pigeon homing: observations, experiments and confusions
Pigeon homing: observations, experiments and confusions
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鸽子归巢：观察、实验和困惑
DOI：
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发表时间：
1996
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Walcott
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Walcott
信鸽可以从遥远的、不熟悉的放飞点返回。有经验的鸽子可以这样做，即使它们被麻醉并被剥夺了向外旅行的信息。飞机追踪表明，鸽子在归途中会走比较直的路线;因此，鸽子在放飞地点一定有办法确定归途的方向。操纵鸽子的内部时钟会导致它们相对于家的飞行方向出现可预测的偏差。当太阳不可见时，这种时钟变化没有影响。这一结果意味着一个两步系统：确定回家的方向，并使用太阳罗盘向该方向飞行。当鸽子看不见太阳时，它们就用磁罗盘。当鸽子在一个不熟悉的地点放飞时，与用来确定归巢方向的线索的性质的不确定性相比，使用罗盘线索来选择和保持飞行方向是很好理解的。因为它们通常从任何方向和距离成功地回家，而不需要在外出的旅程中收集信息，所以它们似乎使用某种形式的坐标系。据推测，一只被转移的鸽子会将释放地点的某个因素的值与其在家鸽舍的记忆值进行比较。这个因素可能是嗅觉的，可能是地球磁场的某些特征，也可能是别的什么。有证据表明鸽子可能会使用几种线索，在不同环境条件下不同鸽舍饲养的鸽子可能更喜欢使用一种线索。我相信，正是这种对多种线索的灵活使用，导致了鸽子归巢实验中的许多混乱。
Homing pigeons can return from distant, unfamiliar release points. Experienced pigeons can do so even if they are transported anesthetized and deprived of outward journey information. Airplane tracking has shown that they make relatively straight tracks on their homeward journey; therefore, pigeons must have some way of determining the home direction at the release site. Manipulating the pigeon's internal clock causes predictable deviations in their flight direction relative to home. When the sun is not visible, such clock shifts have no effect. This result implies a two-step system: the determination of the home direction and the use of a sun compass to fly in that direction. When pigeons cannot see the sun they use a magnetic compass. The use of compass cues to select and maintain a direction of flight is well understood compared with the uncertainty surrounding the nature of the cues used to determine the home direction when pigeons are released at an unfamiliar site. Because they generally home successfully from any direction and distance from the loft, without requiring information gathered on the outward journey, it seems likely that they use some form of coordinate system. Presumably, a displaced pigeon compares the values of some factor at the release site with its remembered value at the home loft. This factor might be olfactory, it might be some feature of the earth's magnetic field or it might be something else. There is some evidence that pigeons may use several cues and that pigeons raised in different lofts under different environmental conditions may prefer to use one cue over another. I believe that it is this flexible use of multiple cues that has led to so much confusion in experiments on pigeon homing.