In the study, “Migratory Reed Warblers Need Intact Trigeminal Nerves to Correct for a 1,000 km Eastward Displacement” by Dmitry Kishkinev and colleagues, Eurasian reed warblers were manipulated to gain information on which cues and sensory mechanisms are used to determine east-west direction, or latitude. Specifically, the ophthalmic branch of the terminal nerve (V1) of these birds was investigated. The nerve contains magnetic senses but little is known about how it functions, so the goal of this experiment was to determine if V1 could be used by Eurasian reed warblers to determine east-west position. To test this, the warblers were captured during spring migration at Rybachy in the Eastern Baltic and displaced 1,000 km to Zvenigorod. A control group was tested, using Emlen funnels, in Rybachy and Zvenigorod. Once displaced, two experimental groups were separated into those that had undergone a V1-section operation or those that had undergone a sham section operation, and the mean group direction was determined for each group using Emlen funnels. The warblers had access to natural day length, natural celestial cues, and local odors.
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