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Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance

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Abstract

Repeated releases of experienced homing pigeons from single sites were conducted between 1972 and 1974 near Cornell University in upstate New York and between 1982 and 1983 near the University of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, USA. No annual variation in homing performance was observed at these sites in eastern North America, in contrast to results from a number of similar experiments in Europe. Assuming pigeons home using low-frequency infrasonic signals (~0.1–0.3 Hz), as has been previously proposed, the annual and geographic variability in homing performance within the northern hemisphere might be explained, to a first order, by seasonal changes in low-frequency atmospheric background noise levels related to storm activity in the North Atlantic Ocean, and by acoustic waveguides formed between the surface and seasonally reversing stratospheric winds. In addition, increased dispersion among departure bearings of test birds on some North American release days was possibly caused by infrasonic noise from severe weather events during tornado and Atlantic hurricane seasons.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank all those who, with W. T. Keeton, produced the large quantity of pigeon-release data at Cornell University between 1967 and 1980, and I. Brown, T. Larkin and S. T. Emlen for making them available to all investigators in 1984. C. Walcott kindly sent us the “Keeton” database, and we thank T. Larkin for providing his program to manipulate and display the data, as well as insider information concerning the Weedsport pigeon releases. D. Sills and W. Szilagyi of Environment Canada generously sent us Canadian tornado data and information on Great Lakes waterspouts, respectively. A. J. Bedard (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences), B. Thigpen (Eminent Technologies), and D. B. Quine graciously shared their acoustical expertise during informative discussions. L. Anderson and C. Bacon of the US Geological Survey provided helpful comments on an early version of the manuscript, and constructive reviews from three anonymous reviewers are also much appreciated. Funding for this work came, in part, from a US Air Force Small Business Innovative Research Grant (FA9302-12-C-0006) facilitated by a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between the US Geological Survey and Technology International Incorporated of Virginia.

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  1. Hugh P. McIsaac

    Present address: , 302 Etna Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA

    Jonathan T. Hagstrum

  2. University of Denver, Denver, CO, 80208, USA

    Hugh P. McIsaac

  3. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, 20375, USA

    Douglas P. Drob

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  1. Jonathan T. Hagstrum
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Correspondence to Jonathan T. Hagstrum.

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Hagstrum, J.T., McIsaac, H.P. & Drob, D.P. Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance. J Comp Physiol A 202, 413–424 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-016-1087-y

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