Navigation Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is navigation?
Determining a particular location and moving towards it.
What is kinesis? What is Taxis?
Simple types of navigation:
1) Kinesis = undirected movement in response to a stimulus.
2) Taxis = movement oriented towards or away from a stimulus.
How do animals get to places outside their immediate sensory range?
Navigation!
What are the different types of navigation?
1) Allocentric navigation = using external cues
2) Egocentric navigation = using internal cues
What are the different types of allocentric navigation?
1) Piloting = navigating using external landmarks
2) Orienteering = navigating using some external cues as a compass.
What does short-distance and long-distance piloting involve?
1) Short-distance piloting involves navigating by local landmarks (around a nest, etc).
2) Long-distance piloting involves following larger “landmarks.”
- This is common during migration.
What if there are no good landmarks for piloting?
That’s when path integration/dead reckoning comes in!
What is dead reckoning?
Requires integration of direction and distance information (egocentric cues - entirely based within yourself)
What do animals use to know which direction to head?
Star compass, sun compass, and magnetic compass
What is a star compass?
Animals orienting themselves by the stars
What’s the problem with a sun compass?
IT MOVES DUH
- If you’re trying to orient to the sun, it varies depending on what time of day it is.
- In the morning (the sun will be in the east), if you wanna fly south, you need to keep the sun on your left.
- In the afternoon (the sun will be in the west), if you wanna fly south, you need to keep the sun on your right.
How can the use of the solar compass be studied?
Can be studied with clock-shifting (controlling light cycles). This is an experimental method.
How should clock-shifted birds orient themselves?
Should be oriented relative to the position of the sun predicted by their internal clocks
How well do birds orient themselves on cloudy days?
Most birds orient the right way, regardless of clock-shifting.
What is the magnetic compass?
Orientation between compass direction (N vs S). It may also give clues to latitude.
- The angle of inclination is different compared to the equator vs the poles.
- The intensity of the field is also different between the equator and the poles.
What animals have a magnetic compass?
Many birds, turtles, sharks, naked mole rats, and dogs
How do animals sense magnetic fields?
Many animals have magnetite crystals inside some cells, but it is unclear how they work.
- Sharks use electroreception, which involves moving through a magnetic field.
