A series of six programmes with Professor Colin Blakemore 4: Show Me the Way to Go Home
When we get lost, we are not very good at finding our way. Many other species, on the other hand, can perform extraordinary feats of navigation using batteries of sensory skills.
Perhaps the best known example is the homing pigeon, which can navigate by sun or stars and a magnetic sensor to act as an in-built compass.
Even humans know where they are in relation to gravity and where all the parts of their bodies are in relation to each other.
(Fifth lecture tomorrow at 2.20 pm)