Are American Homing Pigeons Genetically Different from Italian Ones?
S. BENVENUTI 1, A. I. BROWN 2, A. GAGLIARDO 1, and M. NOZZOLINI 1 1 Dipartimento di Scienze del Comportamento Animale Pisa, Italy Centro di Studi per la Faunistica ed Ecologia Tropicali del CNR Firenze, Italy 2 Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University Ithaca, NY, USA The variable results of experiments on anosmic Cornell pigeons, compared with the consistent effect of olfactory deprivation observed in pigeons in Italy, has sometimes been explained by supposing that pigeons in the two countries belong to different genetic strains. This hypothesis was tested by performing experiments with the progeny of Cornell pigeons transported to Italy as eggs and placed in the nests of Italian foster parents. The homing behaviour of the American birds raised in Italy was compared with that of Italian pigeons hatched and raised in the same loft. The results of the experiments show that both the American and the Italian pigeons are severely affected by olfactory deprivation in releases at unfamil
