The bird GPS – long-range navigation in migrants
The bird GPS – long-range navigation in migrants
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.021238
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发表时间：
2009-11
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
K. Thorup;R. Holland
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
K. Thorup;R. Holland
现在很少有人认为在不熟悉的地区找路是一个问题，因为GPS（全球定位系统）结合一些简单的地图软件可以很容易地告诉你如何从A到B。虽然这种机会在过去十年才出现，但最近的实验表明，长距离迁徙的动物已经解决了这个问题。即使在迁移数千公里到以前未知的地区之后，有经验但不是第一次的候鸟也会迅速调整它们的路线前往目的地，这证明了这些鸟类中存在基于经验的GPS。确定纬度是一项相对简单的任务，即使对人类来说也是如此，而经度则带来了更大的问题。然而，鸟类和其他动物已经找到了实现这一目标的方法，尽管我们还不知道如何做到这一点。确定经度的可能方法包括使用天体线索结合内部时钟，地磁线索，如磁场强度，甚至嗅觉线索。目前，还没有足够的证据来排除其中的任何一种，多年来在实验室环境中研究鸟类的结果部分相互矛盾。我们认为，协调一致的努力，在自然环境中的动物的研究与实验室为基础的研究齐头并进，可能是必要的，以充分了解鸟类的长距离导航系统的机制。因此，研究人员必须接受其他解释，并牢记动物导航可能不一定与人类系统相似，而且我们从多年的鸟类长距离导航研究中知道，至少有些鸟类确实有GPS -但我们不确定它是如何工作的。
SUMMARY Nowadays few people consider finding their way in unfamiliar areas a problem as a GPS (Global Positioning System) combined with some simple map software can easily tell you how to get from A to B. Although this opportunity has only become available during the last decade, recent experiments show that long-distance migrating animals had already solved this problem. Even after displacement over thousands of kilometres to previously unknown areas, experienced but not first time migrant birds quickly adjust their course toward their destination, proving the existence of an experience-based GPS in these birds. Determining latitude is a relatively simple task, even for humans, whereas longitude poses much larger problems. Birds and other animals however have found a way to achieve this, although we do not yet know how. Possible ways of determining longitude includes using celestial cues in combination with an internal clock, geomagnetic cues such as magnetic intensity or perhaps even olfactory cues. Presently, there is not enough evidence to rule out any of these, and years of studying birds in a laboratory setting have yielded partly contradictory results. We suggest that a concerted effort, where the study of animals in a natural setting goes hand-in-hand with lab-based study, may be necessary to fully understand the mechanism underlying the long-distance navigation system of birds. As such, researchers must remain receptive to alternative interpretations and bear in mind that animal navigation may not necessarily be similar to the human system, and that we know from many years of investigation of long-distance navigation in birds that at least some birds do have a GPS – but we are uncertain how it works.