A nocturnal mammal, the greater mouse-eared bat, calibrates a magnetic compass by the sun
A nocturnal mammal, the greater mouse-eared bat, calibrates a magnetic compass by the sun
复制标题
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0912477107
复制
发表时间：
2010-04-13
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Siemers, Bjoern M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Holland, Richard A.;Borissov, Ivailo;Siemers, Bjoern M.
最近的证据表明，蝙蝠可以探测到地磁场，但它们如何利用地磁场来导航到栖息地仍然没有解决。动物可以利用地磁场来指示方向和确定位置。在鸟类中，方向信息似乎来自磁场与太阳或星星的相互作用，一些证据表明日落/日出提供了每日校准磁罗盘的主要方向参考。我们表明，归巢更大的鼠耳蝠（鼠耳蝠）校准磁罗盘与日落线索测试他们的归巢后暴露在一个改变的磁场在日落后的反应。日落时的磁操作导致方向与对照组相比发生逆时针方向的变化，这与磁场的日落校准一致，而日落后的磁操作导致方向没有变化。然而，与鸟类不同的是，偏振模式不是校准所必需的。对于占据很少观察到日落的生态位的动物来说，这是一个令人惊讶的发现。然而，它可能表明，太阳不仅是鸟类的绝对地理参照物，而且也是其他脊椎动物类群的绝对地理参照物。
Recent evidence suggests that bats can detect the geomagnetic field, but the way in which this is used by them for navigation to a home roost remains unresolved. The geomagnetic field may be used by animals both to indicate direction and to locate position. In birds, directional information appears to be derived from an interaction of the magnetic field with either the sun or the stars, with some evidence suggesting that sunset/sunrise provides the primary directional reference by which a magnetic compass is calibrated daily. We demonstrate that homing greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) calibrate a magnetic compass with sunset cues by testing their homing response after exposure to an altered magnetic field at and after sunset. Magnetic manipulation at sunset resulted in a counterclockwise shift in orientation compared with controls, consistent with sunset calibration of the magnetic field, whereas magnetic manipulation after sunset resulted in no change in orientation. Unlike in birds, however, the pattern of polarization was not necessary for the calibration. For animals that occupy ecological niches where the sunset is rarely observed, this is a surprising finding. Yet it may indicate the primacy of the sun as an absolute geographical reference not only for birds but also within other vertebrate taxa.