Category Archives: How animals navigate

Scientific Theories, How animals navigate

Predictive maps in rats and humans for spatial navigation

Posted on 26 September 2022 by Richard Nissen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Migration, How animals navigate, Sense of Direction | Comments Off on Predictive maps in rats and humans for spatial navigation

Magnetoreception – the ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field

Posted on 16 November 2020 by Richard Nissen

David Keays is one of the mega stars of animal navigation research and has spent a life time trying to work out how magnetism might work. Here is a summary of his latest work: Magnetoreception is the ability to sense … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Migration, Bird Navigation, How animals navigate, Sense of Direction | Comments Off on Magnetoreception – the ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field

Eyes are essential for magnetoreception in a mammal

Posted on 9 October 2020 by Richard Nissen

Here is another interesting paper: Mole-rat lives underground and basically cannot see and is often studied to understand how they navigate. Caspar, K. R., Moldenhauer, K., Moritz, R. E., Němec, P., Malkemper, E. P. & Begall, S. 2020 Eyes are essential … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Migration, How animals navigate | Comments Off on Eyes are essential for magnetoreception in a mammal

“Space Cue” hypothesis – a new approach to the bird navigation problem – Vallerii Kanevskyi

Posted on 18 August 2019 by Richard Nissen

Vallerii Kanevskyi has written this fascinating paper that describes how animals navigate but not in the terms of analogies of human navigation such as GPS but in terms of the very essence of quantum mechanics and consciousness.  I believe that … Continue reading →

Posted in How animals navigate | Comments Off on “Space Cue” hypothesis – a new approach to the bird navigation problem – Vallerii Kanevskyi

Summaries of important papers that cover animal navigation

Posted on 17 May 2019 by Richard Nissen

Bauer, S., Shamoun-Baranes, J., Nilsson, C., Farnsworth, A., Kelly, J. F., Reynolds, D. R., Dokter, A. M., Krauel, J. F., Petterson, L. B., Horton, K. G. & Chapman, J. W. 2019 The grand challenges of migration ecology that radar aeroecology can … Continue reading →

Posted in How animals navigate | Comments Off on Summaries of important papers that cover animal navigation

Timing avian long-distance migration

Posted on 11 November 2017 by Richard Nissen

Susanne Åkesson is one of the foremost academics working in the field of animal navigation.  Her recent paper: “Timing avian long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights” is impressive and important. Please see attached the whole paper: Timing avian … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Migration, How animals navigate, Sense of Direction | Comments Off on Timing avian long-distance migration

Dr Kate Jeffery’s paper 0ct 2017

Posted on 26 October 2017 by Richard Nissen

Dr Kate Jeffery is one of our heroes and has a lab at University College London where she experiments with what the brain is doing when rats navigate around a maze. In her experimental rig, she can see neurons fire … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Migration, How animals navigate | Comments Off on Dr Kate Jeffery’s paper 0ct 2017