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Smell and Foraging in Shearwaters and Petrels

Abstract

BIRDS of the order Procellariiformes (the tube-nosed swimmers: albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels) are unusual in the development of their olfactory equipment, and some authors have suggested that these pelagic birds locate food by smell1–3. I report here positive responses from shearwaters and petrels to airborne odour trails controlled for visual cues.

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References

  1. Bang, B. G., Acta Anat., 65, 391 (1966).

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  2. Bang, B. G., and Cobb, S., Auk, 85, 55 (1968).

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  3. Stager, K. E., Amer. Zool., 7, 415 (1967).

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  4. Siegel, S., Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1966).

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GRUBB, T. Smell and Foraging in Shearwaters and Petrels. Nature 237, 404–405 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/237404a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/237404a0

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