Albatross movement suggests sensitivity to infrasound cues at sea.


Gillies, Natasha ORCID: 0000-0002-9950-609X, Martín López, Lucía Martina ORCID: 0000-0003-2984-8606, den Ouden, Olivier FC ORCID: 0000-0002-9248-852X, Assink, Jelle D ORCID: 0000-0002-4990-6845, Basille, Mathieu ORCID: 0000-0001-9366-7127, Clay, Thomas A, Clusella-Trullas, Susana ORCID: 0000-0002-8891-3597, Joo, Rocío ORCID: 0000-0003-0319-4210, Weimerskirch, Henri ORCID: 0000-0002-0457-586X, Zampolli, Mario ORCID: 0000-0001-8250-4154 et al (show 2 more authors) (2023) Albatross movement suggests sensitivity to infrasound cues at sea. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120 (42). e2218679120-.

Access the full-text of this item by clicking on the Open Access link.

Abstract

The ways in which seabirds navigate over very large spatial scales remain poorly understood. While olfactory and visual information can provide guidance over short distances, their range is often limited to 100s km, far below the navigational capacity of wide-ranging animals such as albatrosses. Infrasound is a form of low-frequency sound that propagates for 1,000s km in the atmosphere. In marine habitats, its association with storms and ocean surface waves could in effect make it a useful cue for anticipating environmental conditions that favor or hinder flight or be associated with profitable foraging patches. However, behavioral responses of wild birds to infrasound remain untested. Here, we explored whether wandering albatrosses, <i>Diomedea exulans</i>, respond to microbarom infrasound at sea. We used Global Positioning System tracks of 89 free-ranging albatrosses in combination with acoustic modeling to investigate whether albatrosses preferentially orientate toward areas of 'loud' microbarom infrasound on their foraging trips. We found that in addition to responding to winds encountered in situ, albatrosses moved toward source regions associated with higher sound pressure levels. These findings suggest that albatrosses may be responding to long-range infrasonic cues. As albatrosses depend on winds and waves for soaring flight, infrasonic cues may help albatrosses to identify environmental conditions that allow them to energetically optimize flight over long distances. Our results shed light on one of the great unresolved mysteries in nature, navigation in seemingly featureless ocean environments.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Animals, Birds, Cues, Smell, Wind, Sound
Divisions: Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2023 15:44
Last Modified: 10 Nov 2023 15:44
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218679120
Open Access URL: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2218679120
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3176722
Dimensions
Altmetric
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)