Gap selection and steering during obstacle avoidance in pigeons.

ABSTRACT: The ability of birds to fly through cluttered environments has inspired biologists interested in understanding its underlying mechanisms, and engineers interested in applying its underpinning principles. To analyse this problem empirically, we break it down into two distinct, but related, questions: How do birds select which gaps to aim for? And how do they steer through them? We answered these questions using a combined experimental and modelling approach, in which we released pigeons (Columbia livia domestica) inside a large hall with an open exit separated from the release point by a curtain creating two vertical gaps - one of which was obstructed by an obstacle. We tracked the birds using a high-speed motion capture system, and found that their gap choice seemed to be biased by their i

SUBMITTER: Perez-Campanero Antolin N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10086542 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature