Invitation to ICTP Colloquium on Thursday 15 February by Prof. Anna Gagliardo: "Olfactory navigation and familiar visual landmark-based navigation in birds: from homing pigeons to wild species"

[ICTP Director]

Dear All,

ICTP is pleased to announce that the forthcoming ICTP Colloquium, 
"Olfactory navigation and familiar visual landmark-based navigation in 
birds: from homing pigeons to wild species ", by Prof. Anna Gagliardo, 
University of Pisa (Italy), will take place *next week, on Thursday 15 
February at 16:30 hrs*, in the Budinich Lecture Hall, Leonardo Building, 
ICTP.

BIOSKETCH: Anna Gagliardo earned a degree in Biology and a PhD in Animal 
Behaviour at the University of Pisa (Italy) studying the role of 
olfaction in pigeon navigation. She is currently researcher at the 
Biology Department (University of Pisa), where she studies the 
mechanisms underlying birds’ navigation, with a particular interest on 
the role of olfaction in avian navigation. Her research interest also 
focuses on the neural basis of pigeon navigation and the cognitive 
processes underlying spatial behaviours in birds.

ABSTRACT: Forty years ago Papi and colleagues observed that anosmic 
pigeons failed to find their way home when released from unfamiliar 
locations. They explained the dramatic impact on homing by developing 
the olfactory navigation hypothesis. Pigeons at the home loft learn to 
associate different odour profiles with the wind direction they arrive 
from. Once at a release site, they determine the direction of 
displacement on the basis of the odours perceived locally, and based on 
that information, compute a homeward bearing. Experimental evidence 
pointed out that the olfactory map becomes redundant within a familiar 
area, where visual cues constitute an alternative source of information 
allowing navigation in olfactory deprived pigeons. Some older research 
hinted at an important role of olfactory cues for the navigation of 
nesting swifts and starlings, that displayed homing impairments when 
made anosmic. More recently, new satellite technologies allowed us to 
track wild birds subjected to olfactory manipulation after displacement 
from their breeding site or from their migratory route. Tracking 
experiments in wild species provided evidence consistent with olfactory 
navigation and visual landmark-based navigation in unfamiliar and 
familiar areas, respectively.

The abstract of the talk is available at http://indico.ictp.it/event/8488/

The Colloquium will be livestreamed at http://video.ictp.it/livestream

The poster is attached.

Light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

You are all very warmly invited to attend.

Office of the Director, ICTP