Category Archives: Animal Migration

Head direction cells in a migratory bird prefer north

Posted on 3 August 2022 by Jennie Powell

Animals exhibit remarkable navigation abilities as if they have an internal compass. Head direction (HD) cells encoding the animal’s heading azimuth are found in the brain of several animal species; the HD cell signals are dependent on the vestibular nuclei, … Continue reading →

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How young animals learn to migrate

Posted on 5 April 2022 by Richard Nissen

While advances in biologging have revealed many spectacular animal migrations, it remains poorly understood how young animals learn to migrate. Even in social species, it is unclear how migratory skills are transmitted from one generation to another and what implications … Continue reading →

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‘Frostbit Boy’ rescued among dolphins after 12 hours at sea

Posted on 16 November 2021 by Richard Nissen

Ruairí McSorley who had gone swimming has been rescued after getting into difficulty while swimming off the coast of Co Kerry. He was discovered surrounded by a pod of dolphins four kilometres from the shore of Castlegregory Beach. Read the … Continue reading →

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Magnetic Compass Orientation

Posted on 5 June 2021 by Richard Nissen

This paper is a very good overview of the thinking about avian migratory navigation and acknowledges that birds use all the cues that are available to them to navigate successfully. Magnetic Compass Orientation in a Palaearctic–Indian Night Migrant, the Red-Headed … Continue reading →

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Dolphins and Bats: Superpower

Posted on 5 April 2021 by Richard Nissen

Dolphins and bats don’t have much in common, but they share a superpower: Both hunt their prey by emitting high-pitched sounds and listening for the echoes. Now, a study shows that this ability arose independently in each group of mammals … Continue reading →

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Investigating factors influencing initial orientation in nocturnally fledging seabirds

Posted on 1 December 2020 by Richard Nissen

Please note that Tom Guildford is a very important Animal Navigation professor working at Oxford University.  Manx Shearwaters have been extensively studied as they have amazing navigational skills but do not seems to rely on magnetism. Richard NissenEditor This is … Continue reading →

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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 →

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