Shearwaters make efficient navigational decisions, even at very fine scales

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Navigation and orientation
• Marine biology

Background:

• Seabirds exhibit exceptional long-distance navigation abilities across oceans.
• Understanding the fine-scale positional accuracy and local navigation strategies of seabirds remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the local navigation capabilities of Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus).
• To determine if shearwaters can learn and utilize route efficiencies on a finer navigational scale.

Main Methods:

• GPS-tracked Manx shearwaters were displaced to release sites near their colony.
• Birds were presented with two over-sea island circumnavigation routes of differing distances.
• Behavioral choices regarding route selection were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Shearwaters preferentially selected the shorter of the two available island circumnavigation routes.
• This preference was observed even when the absolute difference in route distance was minimal.
• Demonstrates a capacity for learning route efficiencies relative to travel distances.

Conclusions:

• Manx shearwaters possess sophisticated local navigation skills, including route learning.
• Birds can distinguish and select more efficient routes based on subtle differences in payoff.
• This navigational efficiency may involve complex learning mechanisms for evaluating relative route benefits.