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Which portion of the natural panorama is used for view-based navigation in the Australian desert ant?

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/113733

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Title: Which portion of the natural panorama is used for view-based navigation in the Australian desert ant?
Related: Journal of comparative physiology A : neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, Vol. 195, No. 7 (2009), p.681-689
DOI: 10.1007/s00359-009-0443-6
Publisher: Springer
Date: 2009
FoR/RFCD Code(s): 060600 Physiology 110900 Neurosciences 111600 Medical Physiology
Author/Creator: Graham, Paul
Author/Creator: Cheng, Ken
Description: Ants that forage in visually rich environments often develop idiosyncratic routes between their nest and a profitable foraging ground. Such route knowledge is underpinned by an ability to use visual landmarks for guidance and place recognition. Here we ask which portions of natural visual scenes are essential for visually guided navigation in the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti whose foragers navigate through a habitat containing grass tussocks, shrubs and trees. We captured M. bagoti foragers after they had returned to their nest from a feeder, but before they had entered their nest, and tested their ability to home accurately from a series of release locations. We used this simple release paradigm to investigate visually guided navigation by monitoring the accuracy of nestwards orientation when parts of the ants’ visual field were obscured. Results show that the lower portion of the visual panorama is more important for visually guided homing than upper portions. Analysis of panoramic images captured from the release and nest locations support the hypothesis that the important visual information is provided by the panoramic contour, where terrestrial objects contrast against sky, rather than by a limited number of salient landmarks such as tall trees.
Description: 9 page(s)
Subject Keyword: 060600 Physiology
Subject Keyword: 110900 Neurosciences
Subject Keyword: 111600 Medical Physiology
Subject Keyword: ants
Subject Keyword: navigation
Subject Keyword: visual landmarks
Subject Keyword: snapshot
Subject Keyword: view-based homing
Resource Type: journal article
Organisation: Macquarie University. Dept. of Brain, Behaviour and Evolution

Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/113733
Identifier: ISSN:1432-1351
Identifier: mq-rm-2009004793
Language: eng
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