Supernavigators: The Astounding New Science of How Animals Find Their Way

Whether dung beetles racing toward undisturbed dining spots or sea turtles returning to natal beaches, animals display impressive way-finding feats. Experimental research reveals that a variety of organisms can determine their location, plot or correct their course of travel, and even build and interpret internal maps. But as former transatlantic sailor Barrie (Sextant: A Young Man's Daring Sea Voyage and the Men Who Mapped the World's Oceans) notes, nonhuman species also use polarized light along with chemical (olfactory) and even magnetic cues that humans are unable to detect. Human disruption of the environment threatens animal navigation, and the author asserts that we should be better caretakers of our planet. This title is more suitable for casual science readers than James and Carol Gould's Nature's Compass: The Mystery of Animal Navigation, but with early chapters lacking a cohesive narrative, it is less literary than Bernd Heinrich's The Homing Instinct.