%0 Journal Article
%A Coste, Joshua
%A Votier, Stephen C
%A Dunn, Ruth E
%A Freeman, Robin
%A Nicoll, Malcolm A
%A Carr, Peter
%A Wood, Hannah
%A Trevail, Alice M
%D 2025
%F discovery:10205488
%I Elsevier BV
%J Animal Behaviour
%K Diurnal constraint, GPS tracking, hidden Markov model, homing, Indian Ocean, navigation behaviour, red-footed booby, Sula sula rubripes, Sulidae, Suliformes
%T Homing navigation is optimized to diurnal constraints in a tropical seabird, the red-footed booby
%U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205488/
%V 222
%X 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.
%Z 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,  users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this  license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/