| Title: | Smell of green leaf volatiles attracts white storks to freshly cut meadows |
| Author(s): | Wikelski M; Quetting M; Cheng Y; Fiedler W; Flack A; Gagliardo A; Salas R; Zannoni N; Williams J; |
| Address: | "Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany. wikelski@ab.mpg.de. Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Constance, Germany. wikelski@ab.mpg.de. Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany. Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, University of Konstanz, Constance, Germany. Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. Department of Atmospheric Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany. Energy, Environment and Water Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus" |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-021-92073-7 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Finding food is perhaps the most important task for all animals. Birds often show up unexpectedly at novel food sources such as freshly tilled fields or mown meadows. Here we test whether wild European white storks primarily use visual, social, auditory or olfactory information to find freshly cut farm pastures where insects and rodents abound. Aerial observations of an entire local stork population documented that birds could not have become aware of a mown field through auditory, visual or social information. Only birds within a 75 degrees downwind cone over 0.4-16.6 km approached any mown field. Placing freshly cut grass from elsewhere on selected unmown fields elicited similarly immediate stork approaches. Furthermore, uncut fields that were sprayed with a green leaf volatile organic compound mix ((Z)-3-hexenal, (Z)-3-hexenol, hexenyl acetate), the smell of freshly cut grass, immediately attracted storks. The use of long-distance olfactory information for finding food may be common in birds, contrary to current perception" |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEWikelski, Martin Quetting, Michael Cheng, Yachang Fiedler, Wolfgang Flack, Andrea Gagliardo, Anna Salas, Reyes Zannoni, Nora Williams, Jonathan eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2021/06/20 Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 18; 11(1):12912. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92073-7" |
