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CrowdScience: Why do animals migrate? Part 2

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01/04/2022 GMT

Why do animals migrate? Part 2

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Why do animals migrate? Part 2

How do animals accurately orientate themselves whilst journeying thousands of miles?

Animals are remarkable navigators but what are they using to guide their journeys?  To what extent might birds and turtles be sensing and using the earth’s magnetic fields?

Many animals undertake remarkable migratory journeys; travelling thousands of miles only to return to same burrow or beach they departed from. Yet, unlike humans, they don’t have digital or paper maps to guide their way, so how are they able to orientate themselves with such accuracy?

In the second part of this migration story, CrowdScience’s Anand Jagatia explores how animals are able to navigate using the sun, stars, smells, landmarks and magnetism to help guide them. Anand journeys to the coast of Florida where he helps to place a satellite tracker on a sea turtle in order to follow the long-distance journeys of these animals. He then visits a lab in North Carolina to meet a team that is recreating the earth’s magnetic fields to examine how sea turtles might be using these forces to find their feeding and nesting grounds.

Anand wades into the hotly contested topic of just how birds may be sensing magnetic fields – and hears about one of the latest theories that suggests birds eyes may be exploiting quantum physics. The range of navigational tools we encounter throughout the animal kingdom from whales to ants is beguiling, Anand asks what does our increased understanding of these feats might mean for animal conservation as well as human development of mapping systems.


Contributors:
David Godfrey – Sea Turtle Conservancy
Rick Herren – University of Florida
Tim Guilford – University of Oxford
Ken Lohmann – University of North Carolina
Kayla Goforth – University of North Carolina
Henrik Mouritsen – University of Oldenburg

(Photo: Sea Turtles. Credit: Getty Images)

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