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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…

The need for help

It is interesting, that the need to know how to get somewhere is often the trigger that enables navigation to begin. I discussed this with a friend of mine, whose wife always says, “Why do you use a SatNav when your own direction finding is better every time?” We discussed how his sense of direction…

Our co-editor Antonio Nafarrate has recently written these remarks 

Following the 2016 Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) Conference on “Animal Navigation”, Dr. Painter claims that after some 50 years of work, the Magnetic “mechanism is not fully understood”. In my judgment, it will never be, because there is no such mechanism. The Geomagnetic Field (GMF) is only a minor perturbation to the true navigational…

Magnetic Compass Orientation

This paper is a very good overview of the thinking about avian migratory navigation and acknowledges that birds use all the cues that are available to them to navigate successfully. Magnetic Compass Orientation in a Palaearctic–Indian Night Migrant, the Red-Headed Bunting Summary The earth’s magnetic field, celestial cues, and retention of geographical cues en route…

Understanding the Sami people and how they navigated by our Deputy Editor Kerstin Williams

Editor’s comments: Please find this extract talking about the Sami, the ancient aborigine people of Northern Sweden, Finland etc.  We have sometimes called them Lapps see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people This extract comes from a book about the ancient lifestyle of these people and has been translated by our Deputy Editor Kerstin Williams who is working with us to understand the Sami people…

“Those who work dogs in the field seem to enjoy a closer, sometimes telepathic relationship with their charges that ’s obvious if you know what to look for. A good huntsman’s rapport with his pack – “the golden thread” – is much admired, but so are the feats of gundogs indispensable to every day’s shooting”.

Country Life Magazine (UK) issue July 24th 2019 had an article entitled “Every dog has its day” Those who work closely with animals seem to have a very special relationship with them that may not agree well with established scientific thinking.Editor