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Atlantic herring use a time-compensated sun compass for orientation

Lisa Spiecker1,*,‡, Malien Laurien1,*, Wiebke Dammann1, Andrea Franke2,3, Catriona Clemmesen4 and Gabriele Gerlach1,2 ABSTRACT Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), an ecologically and economically important species in the northern hemisphere, shows pronounced seasonal migratory behaviour. To follow distinctive migration patterns over hundreds of kilometers between feeding, overwintering and spawning grounds, they are probably guided by orientation mechanisms. We…

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Bottlenose dolphins’ electric super sense could help them navigate

Read More Bottlenose dolphins’ electric super sense could help them navigate
The efficiency of varying methods and degrees of time compensation for the solar azimuth

This paper on navigation using the sun is an interesting one by Richard Massy and Karl R. Wotton. Already Tristan Gooley the natural navigator and one of our heroes walked across Crete to prove that the brain can in fact compensate for the movement of the sun during the day and keep a course by…

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Light pollution is important

Atchoi, E., Mitkus, M., Vitta, P., Machado, B., Rocha, M., Juliano, M., Bried, J. & Rodríguez, A. 2023 Ontogenetic exposure to light influences seabird vulnerability to light pollution. Journal of Experimental Biology 226. doi: 10.1242/jeb.245126. Atchoi 2023 (no pdf) Light pollution critically affects the fledglings of burrow-nesting seabirds, leading to massive mortality events. The successful management of this pollutant depends…

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In Praise Of Walking by Shane O’Mara

The new science of how we walk and why it’s good for us This is a snippet from the book, In Praise of Walking by Shane O’Mara, which examines the science behind one of the basic skills that defines us as human beings. Scientists are slowly working out how our sense of direction works. It’s…

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Predictive maps in rats and humans for spatial navigation

Highlights We tested humans, rats, and RL agents on a novel modular maze Humans and rats were remarkably similar in their choice of trajectories Both species were most similar to agents utilizing a SR Humans also displayed features of model-based planning in early trials Authors William de Cothi, Nils Nyberg, Eva-Maria Griesbauer, …,E ́ le onore Duvelle, Caswell…

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Head direction cells in a migratory bird prefer north

Animals exhibit remarkable navigation abilities as if they have an internal compass. Head direction (HD) cells encoding the animal’s heading azimuth are found in the brain of several animal species; the HD cell signals are dependent on the vestibular nuclei, where magnetic responsive cells are present in birds. However, it is difficult to determine whether…

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