Even the bird-brained can follow a leader. When pigeons fly in flocks, each bird falls behind another with better navigational skill, and the savviest among them leads the flock, scientists report in the April 8 Nature.
The research suggests hierarchies can serve peaceful purposes in the animal kingdom, where dominance by brute force is often the rule. “A pecking order tends to be just that — a pecking order,” says Iain Couzin of Princeton University, an expert in collective behavior who was not involved in the research.
The research also suggests that for pigeons, dominance isn’t set in stone. While one bird often emerged as the leader, other birds also stepped up. This flexibility in leadership had previously been seen only in some small groups of fish.
From schools to packs to swarms to flocks, collective behavior is widespread among animals. But in many cases, the important interactions are with nearest neighbors, and control of the group’s movement is distributed among members rather than hierarchical.
Biological physicist Tamás Vicsek of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and his colleagues studied flight dynamics in homing pigeons, which fly in flocks but conveniently return to their roosts. The researchers outfitted 13 pigeons with tiny backpacks carrying GPS devices that measured shifts in birds’ flight direction five times per second. Flocks of eight to 10 birds flew with the devices during homing flights (a roughly 14-kilometer trip back to the roost) and spontaneous “free” flights near home. Each bird also flew solo flights of about 15 kilometers each.
Analysis of GPS logs showed that for each excursion, the flock had one leader followed by at least three or four other birds. Each of these followers was in turn followed by other birds in the flock. Comparing the solo flight paths to the group flights showed that the birds with the best navigational skills led the flock.
While flocks have hierarchies, they’re not dictatorships, notes Vicsek. One bird led eight of the 13 flights, while other birds took the lead on the rest of the trips. Vicsek likens the dynamics to a group of peers deciding where to eat dinner. “Maybe someone knows the area restaurants best, or there is a person who’s a gourmand — or maybe they are the most outspoken,” he says. This one person might pick the place to eat for several nights, although another person might chime in now and then. And then there is the person with no say, whom everyone knows has terrible taste in food.
“These pigeons know each other. They know which is the smartest. The fastest bird will even follow the slower one who knows the way home the best,” say Vicsek. Videos of the birds’ positions during flight showed that if the best navigator moves a little to the left, it takes about a third of a second for other birds to do the same. But if the least savvy bird makes a move “the others don’t care,” Vicsek says.
Pigeons’ brains may be wired for follow-the-leader, comments behavioral neuroscientist Lucia Jacobs of the University of California, Berkeley. When the left eye sees something, for example, it sends all the visual information to the right brain hemisphere, and vice versa. This “extreme lateralization” may play a role in organizing flocks, the new work suggests. A pigeon following another was most likely to be flying on its partner’s right, seeing this leader with its left eye. “It’s very cool,” Jacobs says.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
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Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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Bully birds such as blue jays and European starlings are a nuisance, but you can take some simple steps to prevent them from dominating feeders—and allow less aggressive birds to enjoy your hospitality. Here’s how:
1. Go modern: New innovations in feeder construction can limit the size of birds able to feed in your yard—and bully birds are generally larger than most of the more “desirable” feeder birds. Look for a rubber-coated mesh that surrounds traditional tube, suet and tray feeders. It allows smaller birds to pass through and enter the feeding chamber. Bullies such as blackbirds, pigeons and crows can’t squeeze through. The downside is that desirable birds such as northern cardinals are also too large to enter.
2. Take cover: Starlings are known for their love of suet cakes, and it is not unusual for them to eat a whole cake in a single day. To stymie starlings, hang your suet feeder under a domed squirrel baffle or buy a starling-proof suet feeder, which allows birds access to food only from beneath the feeder. Starlings are reluctant to go under any sort of cover.
3. Catch seeds: Many people find that foiling bullies at feeders isn’t quite enough because they often eat the food that the other birds drop on the ground. To solve this problem, place a garbage can under a hanging feeder. The bullies are not likely to fly into the can to get the discarded seed.
4. Be selective: Selective feeding is another way to control the kinds of birds that eat at your feeders. Generally, bully birds do not like safflower or nyjer (thistle) seeds. By offering just those seeds—and not wild bird seed mixes—only finches, chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals and grosbeaks will come to the feeders to dine.
5. Aid acrobats: Bully species usually require a perch to hold onto while eating, but most finches and many other small feeder birds can eat without perching at food ports. Finches can cling to the sides of a tube feeder and eat all day long. Bullies can’t. Some commercial tube feeders have perches above the food ports, where the birds have to stretch downward to feed—something that bully birds can’t do either.
6. Use bottles: Thwart suet-eating bullies at a cagelike feeder by inserting a long perch that extends out both sides, placing a small soda bottle over each end. When a bully lands on a soda bottle, the weighty visitor rolls off the perch. Smaller birds are too light to roll off the bottles while feeding, or they can cling to the wire cage.
7. Offer alternatives: A male hummingbird is often aggressive and protective of a sugar-water feeder that he considers his own. Only “his females” and their young are allowed to feed undisturbed. The simple solution is to set up an additional sugar-water feeder on another side of your house, out of sight of the other male’s domain. He can’t guard a feeder that he can’t see.
8. Buy weights: Look for a bird feeder that has a weighted perch or treadle. When larger, heavier birds land on a treadle, it drops down over the bird food. (This device works against squirrels, too.) Lightweight birds can reach the food because the treadle does not drop down when they perch.
9. Hang mirrors: Birdhouses for woodpeckers, wood ducks and owls are often taken over by European starlings. To keep the foreigners at bay, place a small mirror on the back wall facing the entryway so that starlings see their own “scary” reflections when they land at the door. The mirror doesn’t seem to deter other birds.
10. Play music: Just when the strawberries and grapes are ready for picking, a variety of birds will descend on a garden patch to consume the fruit. One way to deter these critters is to set up a radio in the garden that plays loud music. It’ll scare even the boldest invaders.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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Birds brighten our lives. We find joy in their songs, inspiration in their soaring flight. They connect us with nature. But sometimes birds connect us a bit too directly with nature.
Park under the wrong tree – one where a flock of starlings or grackles comes to roost – and nature may be painted in white on your car so thickly that it takes a trip or two through the carwash just to see through the windshield again.
Aside from helping you decide where not to park next time, this messy event raises a scientific question: Why is most of the bird poop we see white? The answer lies in the fact that birds, unlike mammals, don’t produce urine. Instead they excrete nitrogenous wastes in the form of uric acid, which emerges as a white paste. And uric acid doesn’t dissolve in water easily. Hence its ability to stick to your windshield like blobs of white plaster.
It appears that drivers of some cars might be asking for trouble. A study in England found that red cars are most likely to be the target of bird droppings, followed by blue and black. Green was the least likely. So be careful where you park. And give that red Mustang a wide berth.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
Scientists have thought for a decade that iron-bearing structures in the homing pigeon’s beak help the bird find its location by “reading” Earth’s magnetic field. Now, it turns out that this iron occupies cells that battle infection, rather than nerve cells.
The new results leave a chasm in our understanding of bird navigation, says Charles Walcott, an expert on the subject at Cornell University, who was not involved in the study. “It’s astonishing that we have what seems like a terribly simple-minded problem. Take a homing pigeon any direction, and after circling a couple of times, it heads for home … and we don’t understand how these animals do this?”
Study leader David Keays, of the Institute for Molecular Pathology in Vienna, did not set out to debunk a beautiful theory, but rather to explore the nerve cells in the beak that supposedly register magnetism. “My background is in molecular biology and genetics, and I thought there must be some incredible biology involved. I wanted to get a handle on the molecules and create an artificial receptor.”
Because the “magnetic neurons” in the beak contained iron, Keays applied a blue stain that gloms onto iron. Christoph Treiber and Marion Salzer generated one-quarter million slices for microscope slides, each one-hundredth of a millimeter thick.
(Makes us dizzy … Didn’t they outlaw slavery?)
Iron in cells in the pigeon’s beak are stained blue; cell nuclei are pink. These cells, previously thought to be nerve cells, are actually macrophages, a type of immune cell.
A fly in the ointment!
Although the magnetic neurons were said to number just six, iron-rich cells showed up all over the beak. One beak had about 108,000 blue-stained cells while another had just 200, Keays says. “This did not make sense. If these were magnetoreceptors, we would expect a similar number in birds of the same age and sex.”
When the scientists treated the samples with stains that attach to neurons, there was almost no overlap with the iron-bearing areas.
As questions accumulated, the researchers got a lucky break. One bird’s infected beak attracted blue cells that resembled macrophages, immune cells that fight infection (and also process iron). “You could see the cells’ tentacles engulfing other cells,” Keays says.
Stains that attach to immune cells overlapped heavily with the iron stain, Keays says; further evidence that the iron was inside macrophages, not neurons.
The study is “quite interesting and convincing,” says Walcott, and it explains why scientists have found no connection between the iron crystals and the nervous system. “If this is going to be seen as a sense organ, I think the two ought to be connected.”
Paradigm paranoia
Although the new study overthrows the accepted explanation for the pigeon’s magnetic mastery, Walcott says magnetism isn’t the whole story in navigation; birds also use vision, memory and smell.
Looking at the sun can help the bird figure out direction, but magnetic methods are needed to find a location on the globe.
The amazing homing ability of the homing pigeon found use in World War I, when the British Army drafted a London bus as a pigeon loft. Pigeons carried messages from the front to the loft in the rear.
Confusingly, birds seem to have a mechanism in the eye that detects Earth’s magnetic field. But because this works only when the sun is shining, it’s unlikely to explain nighttime navigation.
Keays says attitudes have changed since he “released a cat among the pigeons” at a conference a year ago. “Half of the audience wanted to hug me, they had been very skeptical, but the other half wanted to kill me.”
Since then, however, “We were able to persuade some big players in the field that the original reports were wrong. I think the great thing about science is that it is a self-correcting enterprise. If we get it wrong, somebody is going to come along and work out what the truth is.”
At this point, though, mystery rules. “It’s absolutely clear that birds, pigeons, can detect magnetic fields,” Keays says, “but the way they do that is the mystery.”
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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Named for its distinct, mournful cry, the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) is a small, ground-dwelling bird that is found throughout the United States, southern Canada, Mexico, certain regions of Central America, Bermuda, the Greater Antilles, and the Bahamas (Seamans). The mourning dove is a member of the order Columbiformes, family Columbidae, which consists of doves and pigeons (ITIS). The genus name, Zenaida, originates from the name of French zoologist Charles L. Bonaparte’s wife, Princess Zenaide Charlotte Julie Bonaparte (Chipper Woods Bird Observatory), while the species name, macroura, is Greek for “long-tailed” (Boreal Songbird Initiative). There are two subspecies of mourning dove in the United States. The smaller, paler in color Z. m. marginella lives west of the Mississippi River, and the larger, eastern subspecies, Z. m. carolinensis, is the one found in Pennsylvania and the other states east of the Mississippi River (Vuilleumier).
Mourning doves are light, beige colored birds with small, dark beaks and red feet. They have pale blue skin surrounding their eyes and distinct black spots on their wings. Like many other doves and pigeons, mourning doves have iridescent plumage. Although quite subtle, this feature is more noticeable in males, who may have faint, blue coloration on the backs of their heads and a somewhat pinkish breast and neck (National Geographic). The iridescence of the feathers is actually caused by the barbules of each feather being flat, elongated, and twisted at the base. Each barbule is composed of a thick, keratin complex over a layer of air. The number of melanosomes in contact with the keratin cortex and the thickness of the cortex determine the hue of the feather. The color and intensity of the iridescence also varies depending on the angle that light reflects on the feather (Shawkey, et al.). Juveniles are dark brown with a lighter face and chest, and their feathers have an almost “scaly” appearance (National Geographic). On average, mourning doves are between 23 to 34 centimeters in length, with a 45 centimeter wingspan, and weigh between 85 to 170 grams. Females tend to be slightly smaller than males, but overall, there is little difference between the sexes (All About Birds).
Mourning doves mostly inhabit temperate, open areas, such as farmland, forest clearings, along roadsides, and suburban areas. It is most common for mourning doves to be found in areas with much open space and a few trees or other places to nest. Typically, they avoid heavily forested areas (Kaufman), and the species has actually become more abundant with deforestation (Boreal Songbird Initiative).
Mourning doves are not uniformly migratory—northern populations will be more inclined to migrate, while southern populations are significantly less migratory (Yarrow). Northern populations usually migrate in flocks in the colder fall and winter months during the day, when it is warmest (Kaufman). Some populations (usually doves living in the south) will not migrate, so they simply spend their winters in their breeding range. Northern populations typically winter in the southern United States, Mexico, Central America, and Panama (Seamans).
Mourning doves are herbivores—rarely will they ever feed on insects. Seeds are the primary food source for mourning doves. Almost 99% of the mourning dove’s diet consists of grass, grain, and weed seeds (Kaufman). Mourning doves actually play a key role in controlling weed populations by eating the seeds (Chipper Woods Bird Observatory). When food is limited, such as in cold northern winters, mourning doves compensate by feeding for longer periods of time and taking more risks, which increases the likelihood of predation. Since they feed in open areas at ground-level, mourning doves must prioritize take-off speed and wing growth before reaching maturity to reduce encounters with predators both on the ground and from above (Miller 2011). Like many other wintering birds, mourning doves are able to adjust their metabolic rates to adapt to colder environments. This is done through torpor (physical inactivity), change of usual habits and activity, and supplemental nutrition from humans. Northern birds may continue to spend winters in their breeding range due to human interference and other artificial food sources. Mourning doves are more likely than many other bird species to frequent urban settings for supplemental feeding. Because over time they have adapted to using feeders as a food source in the winter months, migratory birds such as the mourning dove will overall be less inclined to migrate and search elsewhere for food (Zuckerberg, et. al).
An interesting and notable characteristic of mourning doves is the distinct “whistle” their wings make when taking off. In some bird species, sounds produced by wing beats can not only be associated with courtship, but they may also be associated with a sort of alarm call or warning of immediate danger and a need to flee. Some species of birds, such as the mourning dove, produce a distinct, wing whistling sound which is different from regular flapping sounds during flight, and louder than the bird’s usual vocalizations. One study suggests that the mourning dove’s wing whistle is a non-vocal alarm call. Although the results consistently suggested that this sound functioned as an alarm call, the sample size was too small to further analyze the theory or replicate the experiments (Hingee and Magrath).
Although they are ground-dwelling birds, mourning doves rarely build their nests on the ground (Boreal Songbird Initiative). Nesting pairs, who first bond by grooming, grasping beaks, and bobbing their heads in unison, will generally build their nests in man-made structures from ground level up to around 250 feet above ground (NestWatch). It is not unusual for mourning doves to reuse their own nests or even those of another species (All About Birds). They usually nest with two of three other pairs, but occasionally, small flocks will nest together. Any time between early April and late September, the eggs will be laid (The Bird Book). Females will raise anywhere from one to six broods a year, typically with two eggs per brood (All about Birds). Chicks are born altricial (NestWatch), meaning that after hatching, their eyes are closed, they are vulnerable with minimal down, and they must be fed by their parents. All passerines (“perching birds,” which make up more than half of the world’s bird population) are altricial. Precocial birds, on the other hand, are hatched with open eyes and down, and they are ready to leave the nest within two days of hatching (Stanford University). A trait fairly unique to mourning doves is the production of “pigeon milk,” known as “crop milk” in other species who produce this substance (Kaufman).
Mourning doves raised in large broods prioritized growth of wings to compensate for slower growth and development overall. As mortality rates in the nest increase, juvenile birds will grow faster and therefore fledge (grow flight feathers) at a younger age. Mourning dove nests often have high predation rates. The more juveniles that are present in the nest, the more competition there will be. With more competition, growth rates are slower and fledging age is at a later age. In contrast, single juveniles grow much faster and fledge sooner (Miller 2010).
In 2013, 250,700 mourning doves were harvested in Pennsylvania during the 2013 hunting season. Only 147,200 birds were harvested the following year. 1,007 birds with a known age were banded in 2013, while 993 doves were banded the next year (Seamans). However, populations are mostly increasing despite hunting and high mortality rate (Chipper Woods Bird Observatory).
In captivity, mourning doves can live up to 19 years (American Museum of Natural History), but the average lifespan in the wild is between one and three years. Most doves die before one year; mortality is mostly related to disease and starvation (Clemson Cooperative Extension). The most common diseases affecting mourning doves are avian trichomoniasis, toxicoses, and avian pox. These three diseases alone make up about 73% of all diagnosed diseases. Toxicoses were diagnosed most in the spring, avian pox was diagnosed most in the summer, and trichomoniasis was diagnosed most often in the spring and summer. Overall, diseases are more often diagnosed in the summer and spring months than in the autumn and winter. (Gerhold et al.). Avian trichomoniasis is caused by the protozoan parasite Trichomonas gallinae. The disease is usually fatal, and a common symptom is necrosis (cell death) in the upper digestive tract of the bird. This disease annually affects mourning doves and other members of the pigeon and dove family; this may contribute to recent population decline in the eastern United States. (Gerhold). Avian pox virus is in the Poxviridae family, which is characterized by large, double-stranded DNA viruses. The virus spreads slowly through both direct and indirect contact. Indirect contact may happen when a bird comes in contact contaminated food, water, perches, dander. Direct contact involves physical contact with affected birds, living or deceased. The virus enters through open wounds or mucous membranes. Mosquitoes are often carriers of the virus, which can easily transmit the virus to birds. Symptoms of avian pox include depression, anorexia, scabs, tumors, weakness, and poor endurance (Pledger).
Hunters kill more than 20 million doves a year, which is more than any other animal in the country. Doves are also sometimes used as live targets. They are not overpopulated and pose little threat to crops or human structures (The Humane Society of the United States). A small proportion of doves shot by hunters ingest lead pellets, but doves may ingest multiple pellets and die faster. Lead is absorbed through gastrointestinal tract, into blood, soft tissues, and bone tissue. Mostly liver and kidney tissues are infected, leading to lead toxicosis. Doves may accidentally ingest lead while feeding in areas where hunters deposit spent lead pellets and eventually die of lead poisoning. This issue could be solved by banning lead pellets and replacing them with nontoxic alternatives (Schulz, et al. 2007). Nontoxic shot alternatives include bismuth, iron, tin, nickel, and tungsten. Millions of mourning doves die of lead poisoning each year; nearly all doves that have ingested lead fall victim to lead poisoning. Lead pellets have been banned for hunting of waterfowl in the early 1990s, but not for hunting of mourning doves and other game birds. Most dove hunters are not in favor of a ban on the use of lead pellets (Schulz, et al. 2006).
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
Pigeon/Pigeon Patrol / Pigeons Roosting / Vancouver Pigeon Control /Bird Spikes / Bird Control / Bird Deterrent / Pigeon Deterrent? Surrey Pigeon Control / Pest /Seagull deterrent / Vancouver Pigeon Blog / Birds Inside Home / Pigeons in the cities / Ice Pigeons/ What to do about pigeons/ sparrows , Damage by Sparrows, How To Keep Raccoons Away, Why Are Raccoons Considered Pests/ De-fence / Pigeon Nesting/ Bird Droppings / Pigeon Dropping/ woodpecker control/ Professional Bird Control Company/ Keep The Birds Away/ Birds/rats/ seagull/pigeon/woodpecker/ dove/sparrow/pidgeon control/pidgeon problem/ pidgeon control/flying rats/ pigeon Problems/ bird netting/bird gel/bird spray/bird nails/ bird guard
We learn that there are five senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste). And we say that there is the “sixth sense,” meaning intuition or a hunch. But there is a physiological seventh sense that detects magnetic fields and, in some species, an eighth sense that detects electrical fields, and perhaps other senses still to be discovered.
Many animals (and plants!) have magnetoreception: birds, turtles, mice, bats, ants, lobsters, bees, newts, fishes, to list a few examples. The capability is also present in bacteria and may be a basic sense in virtually all organisms. However, it is one thing to demonstrate experimentally that an organism is able to sense and respond to magnetic fields, but it is quite another thing to learn how, or if, the magnetic sense is used by the organism.
A real-life function of magnetic sense is known in many animals. For instance, homing pigeons use magnetic sense to locate their home roost. Migratory birds use magnetoreception as well as celestial cues to find the way between nesting and wintering grounds. Sea turtles use this sense to find their nesting beaches and their hatchlings use it, along with light, to find their way to the sea. Some salamanders and toads use magnetic sense to orient themselves to the shore of a pond or to locate their home pond. Certain ants and bees use magnetic (and other clues) to navigate between their nests and food sources. Salmon use magnetic clues, with odor clues, to navigate back to their ‘home’ streams to spawn. An electrical sense of sharks interacts with magnetic sense, allowing them to orient themselves in the ocean.
The plot thickens, however, as researchers discovered magnetic reception and responses at all stages of fish development. For instance, magnetic fields affect the movement of sperm and their success in fertilizing eggs, as well as the size of the resulting embryos and their orientation. The behavior, orientation, heart rates and hormonal activities of larvae and fry are affected by magnetic fields too. The biological significance of these responses apparently remains to be determined.
And what about magnetic sense in plants, which don’t move around? Experiments have shown effects of magnetic fields on such features as flowering time, seed germination and seedling growth, photosynthesis, the behavior of pollen and roots, and enzyme activity. But the importance of these responses in the real world is anything but clear.
How does magnetoreception work? Only the briefest, most simplistic explanation can fit in the space of this essay. The earth’s main magnetic field has three features that can provide information to suitable receptors. The field varies in intensity, which varies with location and the horizontal or vertical orientation of the force. Another feature is called “inclination,” referring to the distance from the surface to the depths of the earth; inclination is very steep near the poles and flatter near the equator, so it gives an index of distance from the poles (i.e., latitude). The field also can provide a compass direction; the declination of a compass indicates deviation from the North Pole/South Pole axis of rotation of the earth (related, roughly, to longitude, and depending on latitude). In addition to the main field, there are local anomalies, commonly caused by magnetized rock.
How do animals sense those magnetic features? Some animals have tiny particles of magnetic material in their beaks, snouts, brains or elsewhere. Another way involves a protein called cryptochrome, found in both animals (including humans) and plants, which undergoes a complex reaction allowing detection of magnetic inclination. In bird eyes, cryptochrome is activated by blue light and may create a filter for light falling on the retina, making a pattern that changes when a bird moves its head, changing the angle between head and magnetic field. There are other possibilities too. In any case, any information gleaned from magnetic features has to be related to an internal map or some other point of reference, if it is to be used for orientation and navigation.
Note that the magnetic sense is so sensitive that it can work over very small distances, such as when a bird moves its head. It has also been invoked as a possible explanation for how foxes orient that marvelous jump as they pounce with their front feet on a rodent under the snow.
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Bird Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products ten years in a row.
Contact us at 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD, (604) 585-9279 or visit our website at www.pigeonpatrol.ca
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