@article{discovery10205488,
            year = {2025},
       publisher = {Elsevier BV},
         journal = {Animal Behaviour},
           title = {Homing navigation is optimized to diurnal constraints in a tropical seabird, the red-footed booby},
          volume = {222},
            note = {This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. The images
or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license,
unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license,
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           month = {April},
             url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123116},
        abstract = {When navigating homewards, central-place foragers can use landmarks and sun angle to adjust their
return movement behaviour. However, for tropical oceanic species foraging from low-lying atolls, the
effectiveness of their homing journeys on their time returns remains unclear. Thus, in this study, the
navigation behaviour of red-footed boobies, Sula sula rubripes, in the Chagos Archipelago, central Indian
Ocean, was investigated. Using GPS tracking data from 207 breeding adults across four colonies, the
homing duration, bearing and trajectory straightness during central-place foraging were explored to
elucidate the navigational constraints and temporal dynamics. Return distances and orientations were
modelled in relation to the time of day and distance to the colony to assess whether birds adjust their
homing behaviour to return before dusk. We found that red-footed boobies navigated efficiently back to
their colony on fast, straight and direct flights and adjusted their homing behaviour to arrive at the
colony around dusk: the closer to the evening twilight they start their homing journey, the shorter, faster
and more direct their routes become. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of seabird
navigation in tropical environments, as well as insights into the adaptive mechanism underlying successful
navigation over expansive oceanic territories.},
        keywords = {Diurnal constraint, GPS tracking, hidden Markov model, homing, Indian Ocean, navigation behaviour, red-footed booby, Sula sula rubripes, Sulidae, Suliformes},
          author = {Coste, Joshua and Votier, Stephen C and Dunn, Ruth E and Freeman, Robin and Nicoll, Malcolm A and Carr, Peter and Wood, Hannah and Trevail, Alice M}
}