Wiltschko R, Wiltschko W
J Comp Physiol A. 1985 Oct;157(4):469-76. doi: 10.1007/BF00615147.
To find out whether the initial orientation of pigeons is affected by a spontaneous directional tendency, as postulated by Wallraff's (1974, 1978, 1982) hypothesis, experienced birds were released at test sites distributed symmetrically around their loft. The length of the mean vectors of the single releases, the deviations from the home direction, the homeward components as well as the homing speed did not show a correlation with the geographic position of the home direction. Summarizing four sites each on 21 experimental circles, we frequently obtained significant compass vectors, but they varied in direction between 115 degrees ESE and 351 degrees N, depending on what sites had been used, and did not indicate a uniform trend. A 'preferred compass direction' as an integrated part of pigeon navigation, being the reason for the frequently observed deviations from the home direction, could not be confirmed. The problematic nature of simply pooling the data of several symmetrically distributed test sites and calling any resulting significant vector a 'preferred compass direction' is discussed, together with other possible reasons for asymmetrical distributions of release site biases.
为了探究鸽子的初始定向是否像瓦尔拉夫（1974年、1978年、1982年）的假设所推测的那样，受到自发定向倾向的影响，有经验的鸽子被放飞在围绕它们鸽舍对称分布的测试地点。单次放飞的平均向量长度、与归巢方向的偏差、归巢分量以及归巢速度均未显示出与归巢方向的地理位置存在相关性。汇总21个实验圈上每个圈的四个地点的数据，我们经常得到显著的罗盘向量，但它们的方向在东东南115度到北351度之间变化，这取决于所使用的地点，且未显示出统一的趋势。作为鸽子导航的一个组成部分的“偏好罗盘方向”，本应是经常观察到的偏离归巢方向的原因，但并未得到证实。本文讨论了简单汇总几个对称分布的测试地点的数据并将由此产生的任何显著向量称为“偏好罗盘方向”的问题性质，以及放飞地点偏差不对称分布的其他可能原因。
