How animals navigate

Do animals have a sense of direction? How do they find their way home? Learn about animal navigation and how different creatures use their senses to get around.

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…

Eyes are essential for magnetoreception in a mammal

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 for magnetoreception in a mammal. Journal of The Royal Society Interface17, 20200513. doi: doi:10.1098/rsif.2020.0513. Caspar2 2020  Several…

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

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 this approach will in fact lead to a much better understanding of how animals actually…

Summaries of important papers that cover animal navigation

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 help answer. Ecography42, 861-875. doi: 10.1111/ecog.04083. Bauer9 2019  Many migratory species have experienced substantial declines that resulted…

Timing avian long-distance migration

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 long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights. One of the critical questions is…