Bogong Moths
This paper is about the extraordinary Bogong moths of Australia who navigate to caves in the mountains during the summer to avoid high temperatures
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Elephant Seals
Elephant seals (sea elephants) are large, oceangoing seals in the genus Mirounga. There are two species: the northern elephant seal (M. angustirostris) and the southern elephant seal (M. leonina). Both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but numbers have since recovered. The northern elephant seal, somewhat smaller than its southern relative, ranges over the Pacific coast of the U.S., Canada and Mexico….
Dolphins
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…
Sense of direction supported by clues by Marcus Bicknell
Marcus Bicknell talks here about how a sense of direction is supported by clues conscious or unconscious that hone the general direction to take. My feeling is that many of us do always know which direction to go. The instinct is then supported by clues. The clues can be conscious, like observing stars, position of…
Animal navigation and biological rhythms: the inertial theory by Antonio B. Nafarrate
Editor’s comments: This paper is quite old but it does propose another navigation mechanism than the current obsession with magnetic orientation. The magnetic field has the terrible drawback of changing all the time and birds have migrating successfully before and after the Earth’s magnetic field flipped South for North. Albatrosses fitted with head magnets (to…
Dowsing Dolphins by Jim Lyons
Background From time to time, I scan the literature to find out the latest ideas on animal behaviour but navigation in particular. Despite numerous papers involving the tracking of birds, hamsters, fish etc., I struggle to find the word that readers of this Journal use all the time – Dowsing. Since the first recording of…