Assessing magnetoreception and orientation/navigation hypotheses in free flying birds (Nav02)

• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 395940726

To achieve a comprehensive understanding of magnetoreception and vertebrate navigation, it is important that key behavioural results obtained in the laboratory are retested in the wild with freely-moving animals. During the first funding period, we obtained fundamental and unexpected results, namely no effects of electrosmog or a magnetic pulse on the departure direction of free-flying migratory birds. Logical follow-up questions are: Does electrosmog, which corrupts the birds’ magnetic compass in the laboratory, affect the departure decisions of migratory birds when a further compass system (e.g. star compass) is not available? Does a magnetic pulse affect the compensation ability of virtually translocated migratory birds?

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1372: Magnetoreception and navigation in vertebrates: from biophysics to brain and behaviour
• Applicant Institution: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Franz Bairlein, until 12/2022; Professor Dr. Heiko Schmaljohann