Magnetic body alignment in migratory songbirds : a computer vision approach
Bianco, Giuseppe LU
; Köhler, Robin Clemens
; Ilieva, Mihaela
LU
and Åkesson, Susanne
LU
(2019)
In The Journal of experimental biology
222.
- Abstract
Several invertebrate and vertebrate species have been shown to align their body relative to the geomagnetic field. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the adaptive significance of magnetic body alignment outside the context of navigation. However, experimental evidence to investigate alternative hypotheses is still limited. We present a new setup to track the preferential body alignment relative to the geomagnetic field in captive animals using computer vision. We tested our method on three species of migratory songbirds and provide evidence that they align their body with the geomagnetic field. We suggest that this behaviour is involved in the underlying mechanism for compass orientation and calibration, which may occur near... (More)
Several invertebrate and vertebrate species have been shown to align their body relative to the geomagnetic field. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the adaptive significance of magnetic body alignment outside the context of navigation. However, experimental evidence to investigate alternative hypotheses is still limited. We present a new setup to track the preferential body alignment relative to the geomagnetic field in captive animals using computer vision. We tested our method on three species of migratory songbirds and provide evidence that they align their body with the geomagnetic field. We suggest that this behaviour is involved in the underlying mechanism for compass orientation and calibration, which may occur near to sunrise and sunset periods. Our method could easily be extended to other species and used to test a large set of hypotheses to explain the mechanisms behind the magnetic body alignment and the magnetic sense in general.
(Less)
- author
- Bianco, Giuseppe
LU
; Köhler, Robin Clemens
; Ilieva, Mihaela
LU
and Åkesson, Susanne
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019-03-11
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Behavioural experiments, Geomagnetic field, Magnetic compass, Magnetic sense, Movement patterns
- in
- The Journal of experimental biology
- volume
- 222
- publisher
- The Company of Biologists Ltd
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85062838225
- pmid:30728159
- ISSN
- 1477-9145
- DOI
- 10.1242/jeb.196469
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- aceba960-2b85-4295-9467-33b1493dc892
- date added to LUP
- 2019-03-21 12:19:10
- date last changed
- 2024-05-14 04:22:27
@article{aceba960-2b85-4295-9467-33b1493dc892,
abstract = {{<p>Several invertebrate and vertebrate species have been shown to align their body relative to the geomagnetic field. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the adaptive significance of magnetic body alignment outside the context of navigation. However, experimental evidence to investigate alternative hypotheses is still limited. We present a new setup to track the preferential body alignment relative to the geomagnetic field in captive animals using computer vision. We tested our method on three species of migratory songbirds and provide evidence that they align their body with the geomagnetic field. We suggest that this behaviour is involved in the underlying mechanism for compass orientation and calibration, which may occur near to sunrise and sunset periods. Our method could easily be extended to other species and used to test a large set of hypotheses to explain the mechanisms behind the magnetic body alignment and the magnetic sense in general.</p>}},
author = {{Bianco, Giuseppe and Köhler, Robin Clemens and Ilieva, Mihaela and Åkesson, Susanne}},
issn = {{1477-9145}},
keywords = {{Behavioural experiments; Geomagnetic field; Magnetic compass; Magnetic sense; Movement patterns}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
publisher = {{The Company of Biologists Ltd}},
series = {{The Journal of experimental biology}},
title = {{Magnetic body alignment in migratory songbirds : a computer vision approach}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.196469}},
doi = {{10.1242/jeb.196469}},
volume = {{222}},
year = {{2019}},
}