What is it about?
Birds can do what we can't: They take wings and fly thousands of miles over unknown territories to finally land where they can breed or survive the harsh winter of their home area. How do they achieve this? In this paper we outline that birds smell and see their way over vast lands. But most notably, they also "see" the magnetic poles of our planet and use this as a landpost. And, last but not least, they integrate all this in a mental map that helps them to navigate. In our paper we use solid data to reconstruct all these processes, but also speculate within limits about the presently unkwnon neural details that enable these outstanding abilities of birds.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
This is one of the most fascinating wonders of nature. And it may teach us new ways to find our own way in this world.
Perspectives
It was a gratifying experience to collaborate with two outstanding scientists to jointly share our knowledge and to come up with a novel view on a mystery of nature that keeps me awake.
Professor Onur Güntürkün
Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Neural Basis of Long-Distance Navigation in Birds, Annual Review of Physiology, February 2016, Annual Reviews,
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-physiol-021115-105054.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
