Dolphins and bats don’t have much in common, but they share a superpower: Both hunt their prey by emitting high-pitched sounds and listening for the echoes. Now, a study shows that this ability arose independently in each group of mammals from the same genetic mutations.
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Professor Kate Jeffery of University College London gave the annual address to the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) this year (2014). This article published in RIN’s Navigation News is, for me, a seminal step forward in describing the parameters of animal navigation and building a structure to delve deeper into how navigation might work. Her idea that…
I am fascinated in Animal Migration. I have attended very learned arguments about this: they have found that birds have magnets in their beaks for instance. But as you investigate these arguments they just do not work right. For successful migration you need to know when to go and where to go. Terns for instance…
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…
>>>>intro>>> I think that the indigenous peoples have a lot to teach us about navigation as it is probable that they have not lost the art of navigation without modern aids and perhaps they can describe how they find their way. Please find an interview with Olle Utsi a wise Sami http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people The Sami / Lapps…
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…
There has always been huge uncertainty as to how migrating animals learn where to go. The cuckoo is a perfect example, as the newly hatched birds must travel from Europe to The Congo Basin for the winter, but how do they know the way (as their parents departed sometime before and they travel on their…