Ingo Schiffner At the RIN 11 Animal Navigation Conference Ingo Schiffner, presented a paper: Mathematical Analysis of Pigeon Tracks, characterisation of the underlying Navigational Process and now he has produced another paper covering Mathematical analysis of the homing fights of pigeons based on GPS tracks. For me, this work begins to create an underlying mathematical basis…
Showcased at the Royal Institute of Navigation is this interesting piece on animal migration. Maura O’Connor is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn. Her first book is: “Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things,” from St. Martin’s Press. She is currently at work on a second book – an exploration of navigation traditions, neuroscience, and…
Cuckoo Migration is one of the great mysteries and to date there is still no agreement on how Cuckoos find their way to the Congo for the winter starting from different locations in Europe. The team at Copenhagen University under Prof Kasper Thorup have been able to tag fledgling cuckoos to follow their migration….
Warrant11 2016 Here is a fascinating paper about The Australian Bogong Moth Agrotis infusa: which is the most amazing Long-Distance Nocturnal Navigator. As they navigate at night their feat is perhaps even more amazing than the migration of the Monarch butterfly in the USA. Richard Nissen editor Warrant E, Frost B, Green K, Mouritsen H, Dreyer D, Adden A, Brauburger K and Heinze S (2016) The Australian…
In September 2015 I was asked to give a workshop at the Annual Conference of Dowsers on Animal Navigation. Of course I talked about how animals, including birds, navigate and all the outstanding questions that remain on how they do it. Those who came to my presentation were some of the best dowsers in the…
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/212/22/3597.full This link is a very complete overview of the animal navigation at present in 2015. It covers all the important work that has been done and discusses what has been found along with all the problems associated with different approaches. As you will see it ends up by saying that we still do not…
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…