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Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs

Despite anecdotal reports of the astonishing homing abilities in dogs, their homing strategies are not fully understood. We equipped 27 hunting dogs with GPS collars and action cams, let them freely roam in forested areas, and analyzed components of homing in over 600 trials. When returning to the o...

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Autores principales: Benediktová, Kateřina, Adámková, Jana, Svoboda, Jan, Painter, Michael Scott, Bartoš, Luděk, Nováková, Petra, Vynikalová, Lucie, Hart, Vlastimil, Phillips, John, Burda, Hynek
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7297537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32539933
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.55080
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author Benediktová, Kateřina
Adámková, Jana
Svoboda, Jan
Painter, Michael Scott
Bartoš, Luděk
Nováková, Petra
Vynikalová, Lucie
Hart, Vlastimil
Phillips, John
Burda, Hynek
author_facet Benediktová, Kateřina
Adámková, Jana
Svoboda, Jan
Painter, Michael Scott
Bartoš, Luděk
Nováková, Petra
Vynikalová, Lucie
Hart, Vlastimil
Phillips, John
Burda, Hynek
author_sort Benediktová, Kateřina
collection PubMed
description Despite anecdotal reports of the astonishing homing abilities in dogs, their homing strategies are not fully understood. We equipped 27 hunting dogs with GPS collars and action cams, let them freely roam in forested areas, and analyzed components of homing in over 600 trials. When returning to the owner (homewards), dogs either followed their outbound track (‘tracking’) or used a novel route (‘scouting’). The inbound track during scouting started mostly with a short (about 20 m) run along the north-south geomagnetic axis, irrespective of the actual direction homewards. Performing such a ‘compass run’ significantly increased homing efficiency. We propose that this run is instrumental for bringing the mental map into register with the magnetic compass and to establish the heading of the animal.
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spelling pubmed-72975372020-06-18 Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs Benediktová, Kateřina Adámková, Jana Svoboda, Jan Painter, Michael Scott Bartoš, Luděk Nováková, Petra Vynikalová, Lucie Hart, Vlastimil Phillips, John Burda, Hynek eLife Ecology Despite anecdotal reports of the astonishing homing abilities in dogs, their homing strategies are not fully understood. We equipped 27 hunting dogs with GPS collars and action cams, let them freely roam in forested areas, and analyzed components of homing in over 600 trials. When returning to the owner (homewards), dogs either followed their outbound track (‘tracking’) or used a novel route (‘scouting’). The inbound track during scouting started mostly with a short (about 20 m) run along the north-south geomagnetic axis, irrespective of the actual direction homewards. Performing such a ‘compass run’ significantly increased homing efficiency. We propose that this run is instrumental for bringing the mental map into register with the magnetic compass and to establish the heading of the animal. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7297537/ /pubmed/32539933 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.55080 Text en © 2020, Benediktová et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Benediktová, Kateřina
Adámková, Jana
Svoboda, Jan
Painter, Michael Scott
Bartoš, Luděk
Nováková, Petra
Vynikalová, Lucie
Hart, Vlastimil
Phillips, John
Burda, Hynek
Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs
title Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs
title_full Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs
title_fullStr Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs
title_full_unstemmed Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs
title_short Magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs
title_sort magnetic alignment enhances homing efficiency of hunting dogs
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7297537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32539933
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.55080
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