Orientation and homing

Many species of amphibians return to the same sites each year to breed (recently reviewed by Sinsch 1990), and several studies have examined the cues used in homing and orientation. To examine the role of cues used in orientation, investigators often have used experiments where amphibians are transported from a home area (e.g., breeding pond) to an area away from where they were captured. They are then monitored to see if they can successfully home back to or orient toward their capture site after one or more of their senses are obliterated. In other studies, investigators have examined the role of chemical cues in amphibian orientation in laboratory test chambers. The basic methods used in these studies are reviewed below. 

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Madison, D. M., and Shoop, C. R., 1970, Homing behavior, orientation, and home range of salamanders tagged with Tantalum-182, Science, 168 1484. 

Madison, 1977 Stoddart, 1980). Our task is considerably more specific as our interest is in the chemosensory components of orientation and homing. 

It is our general prejudice that the proportion of chemical sensing within the total sensory capabilities is greater in aquatic and semi-aquatic animals than in more terrestrial forms where vision in particular dominates. Thus it was somewhat of a surprise to us when we were unable to locate many recent publications on orientation and homing in the more aquatic amphibians. While our finding of an apparent lack of research on amphibians may be partially due to our own admitted historical bias towards the reptilian literature, we also believe that there indeed has been relatively less work on amphibians. It appears that since the important pioneering studies of Twitty (summarized in Twitty, 1966), very few scientists have had an interest in this area. 

Orientation via chemical cues may be more important in some species than in others. For example, Oldham (1966, 1967) studied homing and orientation in American toads Bufo americanus) and green frogs Rana clamitans). Oldham (1966) partially destroyed the olfactory tracts of 99 American toads and used 99 intact toads treated as operational controls. An additional 112 toads were left untreated. The toads were then transported to a point of land between two pools. About the same frequencies of returns occurred to the pools. Oldham concluded that olfaction was not necessary for orientation and homing in American toads. However, since only a portion of the olfactory system was destroyed, it is possible that olfaction was still involved in homing and orientation. 

Airborne stimuli are probably necessary, but not sufficient, for homing. If air samples from future release sites are brought to the loft and pigeons exposed to them, only birds that had been exposed to the odor of their actual release site oriented toward home. In this experiment, the birds were rendered anosmic for the displacement so that they could not pick up odors during the trip to the release site (Kiepenheuer, 1985,1986). 

Body, Food, Health and Home (Not Specifically MCS-Oriented) ... 

Keeton, W. T. The orientational and navigational basis of homing in birds. In "Recent Advances in the Study of Behavior" Academic Press New York, 1974. 

Mrosovsky, N., 1978, Orientation mechanisms of marine turtles, Animal Migration, Navigation and Homing, K. Schmidt-Koenig, and W. T. 

If the inputs for new drivers are constant (e.g. they all go through the same on-boarding and orientation process, operate the same type and age of equipment, and receive the same kinds of loads, level of pay, and home time), then the rate at which they turn over should fall into a predictable pattern (see Table 1). 

HOlldobler, B. K. (1976) Recruitment behavior, home range orientation, and territoriality in harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex, Behav. Ecol. SociobioL, 1, 3-44. 

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