Northern magnetic displacements trigger endogenous fuelling responses in a naive bird migrant
Author
Summary, in English
In a previous study, we found that juvenile northern wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe) exposed to a magnetic displacement to the west of their natural migration route increased their body mass. The total intensity and inclination used for the western displacement may also have been interpreted as northern compared to the experimental site (stronger total field intensity and steeper inclination angle). In order to investigate whether the fuelling response was a response to an unexpected magnetic field or specific to the northern magnetic field, we conducted a new experiment. Juvenile wheatears from the same study population were magnetically displaced to southwestern magnetic fields, exposing the birds to unexpected magnetic combinations, but eliminating the possible effect of a northern magnetic field. A control group was kept in the local geomagnetic field in Sweden for comparison. There was no difference in body mass increase between treatments, suggesting that the fuelling response previously found was not a simple response to an unexpected magnetic field, but rather a specific response to the northern magnetic field. Juvenile wheatears may have developed a fuelling response to northern magnetic fields in order to enable a successful flight towards the migration goal.
Department/s
Publishing year
2012
Language
English
Pages
819-821
Publication/Series
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Volume
66
Issue
5
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- Biological Sciences
Keywords
- Magnetic field
- Fuelling
- Migration programs
- Northern wheatear
Status
Published
Research group
- Animal Navigation Lab
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1432-0762