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.

To cross or not to cross

Recently Vera Brust, Bianca Michalik and Ommo Hüppop  have produced a paper called “To cross or not to cross – thrushes at the German North Sea coast adapt flight and routing to wind conditions in autumn”. They looked at some of the thrush family (blackbirds, redwings and song thrushes) that migrate across the North sea from the German…

COGNITIVE NAVIGATION SYMPOSIUM: SENSE OF DIRECTION

Recently Prof Kate Jeffery, working with The Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN), gave a one day symposium at University College London. Themes• How animals orient – perspectives from ethology and neuroscience • How humans orient – perspectives from cognitive neuroscience • Helping humans orient – perspectives from architecture and design • The future – building a more navigable…

“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

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…