Webbläsaren som du använder stöds inte av denna webbplats. Alla versioner av Internet Explorer stöds inte längre, av oss eller Microsoft (läs mer här: * https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Var god och använd en modern webbläsare för att ta del av denna webbplats, som t.ex. nyaste versioner av Edge, Chrome, Firefox eller Safari osv.

Are harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) able to perceive and use polarised light?

Författare

  • Frederike D. Hanke
  • Lars Miersch
  • Eric Warrant
  • Fedor M. Mitschke
  • Guido Dehnhardt

Summary, in English

Harbour seals are active at night and during the day and see well in both air and water. Polarised light, which is a well-known visual cue for orientation, navigation and foraging, is richly available in harbour seal habitats, both above and below the water surface. We hypothesised that an ability to detect and use polarised light could be valuable for seals, and thus tested if they are able to see this property of light. We performed two behavioural experiments, one involving object discrimination and the other involving object detection. These objects were presented to the seals as two-dimensional stimuli on a specially modified liquid crystal display that generated objects whose contrast was purely defined in terms of polarisation (i.e. objects lacked luminance contrast). In both experiments, the seals' performance did not deviate significantly from chance. In contrast, the seals showed a high baseline performance when presented with objects on a non-modified display (whose contrast was purely defined in terms of luminance). We conclude that harbour seals are unable to use polarised light in our experimental context. It remains for future work to elucidate if they are polarisation insensitive per se.

Publiceringsår

2013

Språk

Engelska

Sidor

509-519

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

Journal of Comparative Physiology A

Volym

199

Issue

6

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

Springer

Ämne

  • Zoology

Nyckelord

  • Harbour seal
  • Phoca vitulina
  • Polarisation
  • Object detection
  • Liquid
  • crystal display monitor

Status

Published

Forskningsgrupp

  • Lund Vision Group

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 1432-1351