Dung beetles ignore landmarks for straight-line orientation
Dacke, Marie LU ; Byrne, Marcus ; Smolka, Jochen LU ; Warrant, Eric LU
and Baird, Emily
LU
(2012)
In Journal of Comparative Physiology A
199.
p.17-23
- Abstract
- Upon locating a suitable dung pile, ball-rolling
dung beetles shape a piece of dung into a ball and roll it
away in a straight line. This guarantees that they will not
return to the dung pile, where they risk having their ball
stolen by other beetles. Dung beetles are known to use
celestial compass cues such as the sun, the moon and the
pattern of polarised light formed around these light sources
to roll their balls of dung along straight paths. Here, we
investigate whether terrestrial landmarks have any influence
on straight-line orientation in dung beetles. We find
that the removal or re-arrangement of landmarks has no
effect on the... (More) - Upon locating a suitable dung pile, ball-rolling
dung beetles shape a piece of dung into a ball and roll it
away in a straight line. This guarantees that they will not
return to the dung pile, where they risk having their ball
stolen by other beetles. Dung beetles are known to use
celestial compass cues such as the sun, the moon and the
pattern of polarised light formed around these light sources
to roll their balls of dung along straight paths. Here, we
investigate whether terrestrial landmarks have any influence
on straight-line orientation in dung beetles. We find
that the removal or re-arrangement of landmarks has no
effect on the beetle’s orientation precision. Celestial compass
cues dominate straight-line orientation in dung beetles
so strongly that, under heavily overcast conditions or when
prevented from seeing the sky, the beetles can no longer
orient along straight paths. To our knowledge, this is the
only animal with a visual compass system that ignores the
extra orientation precision that landmarks can offer. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/3132010
- author
- Dacke, Marie
LU
; Byrne, Marcus
; Smolka, Jochen
LU
; Warrant, Eric
LU
and Baird, Emily
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2012
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Dung beetle, Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae, Landmark, Orientation
- in
- Journal of Comparative Physiology A
- volume
- 199
- pages
- 17 - 23
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000313048700002
- scopus:84871935262
- pmid:23076443
- ISSN
- 1432-1351
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00359-012-0764-8
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c7bc5011-e166-4874-87e8-84eab7b595e6 (old id 3132010)
- alternative location
- http://www.springerlink.com/content/6l7vrk3w88043k7w/fulltext.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:51:54
- date last changed
- 2022-03-20 00:37:07
@article{c7bc5011-e166-4874-87e8-84eab7b595e6,
abstract = {{Upon locating a suitable dung pile, ball-rolling<br/><br>
dung beetles shape a piece of dung into a ball and roll it<br/><br>
away in a straight line. This guarantees that they will not<br/><br>
return to the dung pile, where they risk having their ball<br/><br>
stolen by other beetles. Dung beetles are known to use<br/><br>
celestial compass cues such as the sun, the moon and the<br/><br>
pattern of polarised light formed around these light sources<br/><br>
to roll their balls of dung along straight paths. Here, we<br/><br>
investigate whether terrestrial landmarks have any influence<br/><br>
on straight-line orientation in dung beetles. We find<br/><br>
that the removal or re-arrangement of landmarks has no<br/><br>
effect on the beetle’s orientation precision. Celestial compass<br/><br>
cues dominate straight-line orientation in dung beetles<br/><br>
so strongly that, under heavily overcast conditions or when<br/><br>
prevented from seeing the sky, the beetles can no longer<br/><br>
orient along straight paths. To our knowledge, this is the<br/><br>
only animal with a visual compass system that ignores the<br/><br>
extra orientation precision that landmarks can offer.}},
author = {{Dacke, Marie and Byrne, Marcus and Smolka, Jochen and Warrant, Eric and Baird, Emily}},
issn = {{1432-1351}},
keywords = {{Dung beetle; Scarabaeidae; Scarabaeinae; Landmark; Orientation}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{17--23}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Journal of Comparative Physiology A}},
title = {{Dung beetles ignore landmarks for straight-line orientation}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00359-012-0764-8}},
doi = {{10.1007/s00359-012-0764-8}},
volume = {{199}},
year = {{2012}},
}