Pigeon homing and magnetic fields: a response to Luschi et al (1996)

摘要

This paper comments on an article 'Pigeon homing: evidence against reliance on magnetic information picked up en route at release sites' by P. Luschi, C. del Seppia, E. Crosio and F. Papi, which appeared in this journal. It is pointed out that the particular effects which these authors show to be stress-induced artefacts are restricted to their specific strain of homing pigeons. The same effects could not be observed in pigeons from two other lofts-a difference in response that was shown to have a genetic base. In view of this, conclusions drawn from the results of Luschi et al. must be restricted to their own findings; they cannot be generalized to the other findings which indicate the use of magnetic outward journey information in young homing pigeons. [References: 20]