Navigation is like a rope

One way to look at navigation is to think of a rope.

A rope is made up of many strands each are often tiny weak and short.  The Incas made bridges over great canyons using straw wound together to make great strong ropes that last for ages.

Each fibre of a rope must be wound together into a tight bundle and then twisted into strands that are bound together into a single rope. The rope has properties that are completely different from the individual strands.

For natural navigation all the information that can possibly be used has to be integrated into developing a solution.

The important difference with navigation is that there is always a beginning of the journey and an end. Different factors are at work at different times in the journey.

Different parts of the journey need different skills:

Starting out
You need a bearing to set out in roughly the right direction. Many animals do just that. They have the confidence to set out based on “knowing which way to go”.

In the middle
You are trying to get better information. You are looking for landmarks. You are searching for more clues to help support your initial direction. Some of these are things like wind direction, where the sun is etc. The clues are often in quite low resolution.

Near the end
You suddenly starting picking up landmarks. This confirms where you are and where you need to go. The resolution of clues gets finer and finer.

As you approach your destination
You are integrating neighbourhood clues and using a different part of the brain: the Hippocampus. Sense of smell is often critical too. But, in the end you just recognise your destination and there you are!