OLFACTION AND THE HOMING ABIITY OF PIGEONS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED-STATES

The importance of atmospheric odors for homing pigeon navigation was t ested using birds from a loft located in Savannah, GA, in the southeas tern United States. When released from a familiar training site, contr ol pigeons and pigeons given intranasal injections of zinc sulfate to produce anosmia bath displayed good homeward orientation and homed qui ckly. When released from three unfamiliar release sites, in contrast, control birds tended to orient southeast, while zinc sulfate-treated b irds were more likely to fly northwest. More importantly, while the ma jority of control pigeons returned to the home loft, few of the zinc s ulfate-treated birds returned. The good performance of both groups fro m the familiar site indicates that zinc sulfate treatment does not imp air the general motor ability or motivation of homing pigeons. Therefo re, the observed impairment in homing success of the zinc sulfate-trea ted pigeons from the unfamiliar locations presumably reflects an impai red ability to use atmospheric odors to navigate home. As such, the da ta support the hypothesis that successful homing pigeon navigation is based on the perception of atmospheric odors and that olfactory naviga tion is the primary mechanism used by pigeons over a broad range of ge ographic areas to approximate their relative position with respect to home from unfamiliar locations. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.