... at the colony both during the day and at night. Here, we compared the nocturnal versus diurnal homing schedule of birds treated with zinc sulphate (to induce a reversible but complete anosmia) with that of controls. Our results show that anosmic shearwaters were unable to home in the dark and were constrained...

... to recognize the burrow. In contrast,surface-nesting petrels may rely on visual cues to recognise their nest. We performed experiments on nine species of petrel (with different nesting habits) rendered anosmic either by plugging the nostrils or by injecting zinc sulphate onto the nasal epithelium. Compared...

... whether blue petrels use olfaction to localise their nest burrows. Incubating birds were injected intranasally with a zinc sulphate solution, which reversibly impairs the sensitivity of the olfactory mucosa; control birds were treated with physiological saline solution. None of the anosmic birds returned...

...Silvano Benvenuti; Anna Gagliardo ABSTRACT Pigeons were made anosmic by unilateral treatment of their olfactory mucosa with a zinc sulphate solution and by plugging the contralateral nostril. In a series of releases at unfamiliar sites, 55–79 km from the home loft, the experimental birds’ homing...

...Jutta Schmid; Wolfgang Schlund ABSTRACT Depriving homing pigeons of olfactory information by spraying an 18% zinc sulphate solution onto their olfactory ephithelium results in anosmia that persists for at least 5 days (tested using the ‘orienting response’). To study whether anosmic zinc-sulphate...

...Wolfgang Schlund ABSTRACT Depriving homing pigeons of olfactory information by applying a local anaesthetic, gingicain, to their olfactory epithelium results in systemic effects. Furthermore, anosmia persists reliably for only an hour. In contrast, intra-nasal irrigation with 18 % zinc sulphate...