Data from: Learning multiple routes in homing pigeons

The aerial lifestyle of central-place foraging birds allows wide-ranging movements, raising fundamental questions about their remarkable navigation and memory systems. For example, we know that pigeons (Columba livia), long-standing models for avian navigation, rely on individually distinct routes when homing from familiar sites. But it remains unknown how they cope with the task of learning several routes in parallel. Here, we examined how learning multiple routes influences homing in pigeons. We subjected groups of pigeons to different training protocols, defined by the sequence in which they were repeatedly released from three different sites, either sequentially, in rotation or randomly. We observed that pigeons from all groups successfully developed and applied memories of the different release sites (RSs), irrespective of the training protocol, and that learning several routes in parallel did not impair their capacity to quickly improve their homing efficiency over multiple releases. Our data also indicated that they coped with increasing RS uncertainty by adjusting both their initial behaviour upon release and subsequent homing efficiency. The results of our study broaden our understanding of avian route following and open new possibilities for studying learning and memory in free-flying animals.

中心地觅食（central-place foraging）鸟类的空中生活模式使其能够开展大范围活动，这引发了关于其卓越导航与记忆系统的基础性研究问题。例如，原鸽（Columba livia）作为鸟类导航研究的长期经典模型，在从熟悉地点归巢时会采用个体独有的飞行路线。但目前仍不清楚它们如何并行学习多条路线以完成归巢任务。本研究探究了并行学习多条路线如何影响原鸽的归巢行为。我们将多组原鸽置于不同的训练范式中，这些范式由它们从三个不同地点反复被释放的顺序所定义，分别为依次释放、轮换释放与随机释放。我们观察到，无论采用何种训练范式，所有组别的原鸽均成功形成并运用了对不同释放地点（release sites, RSs）的记忆，且并行学习多条路线并未削弱它们在多次释放后快速提升归巢效率的能力。我们的数据还表明，它们会通过调整释放初期的行为与后续归巢效率，来应对释放地点不确定性的提升。本研究结果拓展了我们对鸟类路线追随行为的认知，并为研究自由飞行动物的学习与记忆机制开辟了新的可能性。