Whilst dolphins may not teach us much more about animal navigation than other animals, humanity has been fascinated by the dolphin from the earliest times. They are a part of Greek mythology and we have continuous stories of sailors being rescued by dolphins as well as the legend of mermaids. A book called Le Cinquieme…
The bar tailed Godwit is about 37/39cms (15ins) long which summers in the arctic yet migrates to warmer locations during the winter. These include astonishing non-stop flights over the Pacific to New Zealand every Northern winter. As you can see from the tracks, you will see it flies in a perfect straight flight from the Arctic…
I hold the view that animals, the ancient peoples and the aborigines navigate perfectly well without compasses. This we often call a sense of direction. People with a sense of direction very seldom get lost even on dark nights even in unfamiliar territory. Not everyone has a sense of direction but those who do rely…
The Albatross that ranges over huge areas of the South Atlantic Region in overcast weather where sun clues are seldom available to return to their breeding islands such as Crozet in the South Atlantic, work done by Bonadonna et al in 2004 shows that manipulating the albatrosses by altering their magnetic environment made no difference…
Alaska Bird Makes Longest Nonstop Flight Ever Measured USGS Alaska Science Center Bar–tailed Godwit Updates
The Cuckoo is one of the migrants we know least about once it leaves the UK. This amazing site is tracking the movements of five Cuckoos from breeding grounds in East Anglia to their winter quarters in Africa. http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking
Questions by Richard Nissen. Replies by David Higgins – President of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. If pigeons are not trained do pigeons roam far from their lofts? Probably no more than a mile. Do you think that homing into the loft when it is near by is done using geographical features such as roads…