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Ingo Schiffner at RIN11
At RIN11 Ingo Schiffner gave his presentation Mathematical Analysis of Pigeon Tracks (the characterisation of the underlying navigational process). He analysed 167 tracks with birds navigating from four different locations and from two different directions. His theory is that pigeons navigate using at least four different components and these components change over the course of…
The Albatross
You will find other descriptions here of Henri Weimerskirch’s work on Albatrosses under Albatrosses on this site as well as Anna Gagliardo’s work on the use of smell in navigation. A book recently written by Adam Nicholson called “The Seabirds Cry” is fascinating about the mythology and lives of the sea birds in his book;…
Olfactory landmarks and path integration converge to form a cognitive spatial map
This paper on olfactory landmarks is interesting as it covers the idea that the distinctive smell of a place can help navigation by creating a new landmark for helping an animal navigate. The recognition of a spatial landmark by its sensory features poses a problem for neural circuits. Fischler-Ruiz, et al. show how this problem…
The hippocampus of rats
Prof Kate Jeffery has done some very interesting work on how the hippocampus of rats processes navigational information. Scientists are clear that the hippocampus is critical for navigation but believe that it is only one part of a larger system that has many functions including recognising landmarks, computing distances and directions etc. and forming memories….
The genetics of migration on the move
Intro to the paper >>>> This paper is important as it begins to investigate a genetic basis to animal navigation and focuses on finding markers to get a grip on understanding the underlying genetic architecture of migration Cross-breeding experiments were carried out in the 80/90s by Peter Berthold and his team at the Max Planck Centre in Seewiesen….
Migration observation
I love this little observation by James Mather… “I was on a ladder clearing the gutters end of last week, and over a period of hours heard a number of flocks of birds gathering to migrate, and I could see them heading off in V-formation. Then, at one point, low cloud closed in, but I…