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We expected to find evidence for either tracking or scouting, to test the predictions about the route length and duration, and to see indications for the type of decision made at the turning point. Using GPS data complemented by video recordings by action cams, we analyzed orientation of free-roaming scent hounds. Scouting enables taking shortcuts and might be faster but requires navigation capability and, because of possible errors, is risky. While tracking may be safe, it is lengthy. We expect that either dogs can find their way to the owner following their own scent trail back (a strategy called ‘tracking’) or they can perform true navigation, the ability to home over large distances without relying on route-based landmarks or information acquired during the displacement, a strategy we termed ‘scouting’, searching for a new way. How dogs pinpoint the owner’s location using novel routes of return in highly variable densely forested habitats remains perplexing.
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Hunting dogs, particularly the so-called scent hounds, have been selected over generations to detect and pursue tracks of game animals and, if not followed by the hunter, to return to the place where the pursuit started, often over distances of hundreds or thousands of meters. Indeed, as previous authors have suggested, shedding light on the mystery of mammalian homing may require unconventional research approaches that focus on ‘unusual’ senses ( Nahm, 2015). Dogs often homed using novel routes and/or shortcuts, ruling out route reversal strategies, and making olfactory tracking and visual piloting unlikely. Decades later, a more comprehensive study observed consistent homing success in a total of 26 dogs displaced without exposure to visual cues in various geographic directions. Nearly a century ago, the first studies designed to examine navigational abilities in dogs were performed, revealing homing success even if displaced to unfamiliar sites (Schmid 1932, 1936 cited in Nahm, 2015). However, designing systematic studies to characterize the navigational strategies and underlying sensory mechanisms mediating homing behaviour in non-migratory species, particularly in free-ranging mammals, have proven difficult, and our understanding of large-scale navigation and homing remains incomplete ( Poulter et al., 2018 Tsoar et al., 2011 Wolbers and Wiener, 2014).Īnecdotal accounts of the impressive navigation abilities of dogs have been commonplace, maybe best exemplified in World War I when ‘messenger dogs’ were used as couriers to deliver sensitive information across battlegrounds ( Richardson, 1920). breeding grounds, shelter sites) after displacement ( Schmidt-Koenig and Keeton, 1978 Papi, 1992 Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 1995), has been shown in a taxonomically diverse range of vertebrates that rely on a multitude of cues, for example visual, olfactory, acoustic, celestial, magnetic, and idiothetic ( Schmidt-Koenig and Keeton, 1978 Papi, 1992 Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 1995 Cullen and Taube, 2017 Lohmann, 2018 Mouritsen, 2018). Homing, broadly defined as the ability to return to a known goal location (e.g.