Animal Migration
Animal migration is a fascinating phenomenon where animals travel long distances to reach breeding or feeding grounds. Discover the intricacies of this behaviour, including the cues animals use to navigate, the challenges they face along the way, and the benefits and costs of migration. Explore our resources and insights on animal migration and expand your understanding of this fascinating natural wonder.
The efficiency of varying methods and degrees of time compensation for the solar azimuth
This paper on navigation using the sun is an interesting one by Richard Massy and Karl R. Wotton. Already Tristan Gooley the natural navigator and one of our heroes walked across Crete to prove that the brain can in fact compensate for the movement of the sun during the day and keep a course by…
In Praise Of Walking by Shane O’Mara
The new science of how we walk and why it’s good for us This is a snippet from the book, In Praise of Walking by Shane O’Mara, which examines the science behind one of the basic skills that defines us as human beings. Scientists are slowly working out how our sense of direction works. It’s…
Predictive maps in rats and humans for spatial navigation
Highlights We tested humans, rats, and RL agents on a novel modular maze Humans and rats were remarkably similar in their choice of trajectories Both species were most similar to agents utilizing a SR Humans also displayed features of model-based planning in early trials Authors William de Cothi, Nils Nyberg, Eva-Maria Griesbauer, …,E ́ le onore Duvelle, Caswell…
Head direction cells in a migratory bird prefer north
Animals exhibit remarkable navigation abilities as if they have an internal compass. Head direction (HD) cells encoding the animal’s heading azimuth are found in the brain of several animal species; the HD cell signals are dependent on the vestibular nuclei, where magnetic responsive cells are present in birds. However, it is difficult to determine whether…
How young animals learn to migrate
While advances in biologging have revealed many spectacular animal migrations, it remains poorly understood how young animals learn to migrate. Even in social species, it is unclear how migratory skills are transmitted from one generation to another and what implications this may have. Here we show that in Caspian terns Hydroprogne caspia family groups, genetic and foster…
‘Frostbit Boy’ rescued among dolphins after 12 hours at sea
Ruairí McSorley who had gone swimming has been rescued after getting into difficulty while swimming off the coast of Co Kerry. He was discovered surrounded by a pod of dolphins four kilometres from the shore of Castlegregory Beach. Read the full story.