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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…
The Common Toad: Bufo, bufo.bufo
Observations from the “Observer’s book of British wild animals” first published in 1938. It was compiled by W.J.Stoke. “I found this piece fascinating as it describes the navigational skills of Toads. There are also other works that suggests that Newts operate in a similar way, making long journeys out of the water but not getting…
A Sense of Direction – some more examples
I hold the view that animals, the ancient peoples and the Aborigines navigate perfectly well without compasses. This we often call a sense of direction. People with a sense of direction very seldom get lost even on dark nights even in unfamiliar territory. Not everyone has a sense of direction but those who do rely on…
Animal navigation is one of the great mysteries
This site has been created to share information and invite you to contribute in order to see if we can find out how animals and humans navigate without aids. There has been a lot of academic work in this field which is difficult to follow without interpretation. We shall try to put as much of…
Another description of how animal navigation might work
In a recent address to RIN Dr Kate Jeffery of the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College London described a very complete structure for understanding animal navigation. See https://animalnav.org/navigation-networks-in-the-brain/ We at www.animalnav.org have been struggling with exactly these concerns. Prof Jeffery postulates that you need four things to create a navigation system A compass…
Emperor Penguins
I have always been fascinated and touched by the devotion of Emperor Penguins and their rearing of a single chick in possibly the remotest and severest of environments on the planet. They breed in the depth of the Antarctic winter during 24 hours of darkness in temperatures which range from –20 C to – 50C…
