Birds use massive magnetic maps to migrate – and some could cover the whole world
Richard Holland is Professor in Animal Behaviour, School of Natural Sciences, Bangor University. His research group focuses on the cognitive processes and sensory mechanisms by which animals navigate and migrate. “While my principle focus is at the level of the whole organism I also incorporate aspects of neurobiology, molecular biology, and physics to identify the environmental cues, sensory pathways and mechanisms used by animals to decide how, when and where to move.”
Dmitry Kishkinev is a Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Behavioural Neuroscience, Keele University. His project ‘Sensory systems for short and long-distance navigation in birds ‘ addressed the questions of how migratory songbirds can use magnetic and olfactory senses for finding their geographic position relative to destinations, whether the use of these senses depends on geographic scale (short vs long distances) and where magnetosensensory cells (aka magnetoreceptors) could be located in the animal’s body.