Humans like to think of themselves as the most intelligent creatures on the planet. But there are many different ways of measuring intelligence, and in some ways our animal friends have got us beaten hands down.
For example, if we were to be taken somewhere unfamiliar and left to find our own way home, we’d be unlikely to manage it without asking someone, plotting the route on our phones or using a map.
But every day, different animals manage this complex task using a range of techniques our brains can barely imagine, let alone manage. Whether it’s a cat returning to its former home, birds migrating to a different continent or salmon finding their way back to their spawning ground, animals are often traversing large distances and successfully finding their way to where they want to go.
So how do animals find their way back home and how do birds navigate? This month, the team at Green Lane Farm is examining this intriguing question.
Dogs
There are tales of dogs travelling literally hundreds of miles to find their way back home – the film Lassie Come Home may have been mostly fictional, but it was actually based on a real case.
One of the great strengths they have is the incredible distance across which they can pick up familiar scents. If the wind is right, that could even be as much as fifteen miles. For longer distances, it’s believed that they also use overlapping circles of smells, so that they can follow increasingly familiar scents to reach home.
For really long distances they may even be able to detect the Earth’s magnetic fields to locate themselves. A Czech study suggested that around 60% of dislocated dogs used smell alone to get back to their handlers, while 30% followed a north-south axis to help them get their bearings before homing in as they got close enough to follow familiar smells.
Cats
We’ve all heard stories of cats who’ve been moved to a new home and then disappeared for days, weeks or even years, only to eventually find their way back to their old stamping ground. How they do this, however, is still a subject for considerable debate.
Like dogs, cats have extremely acute senses. In fact, they have an even more acute sense of smell than dogs, but because they use smell for different purposes – cats tend to use it for determining whether prey is worth hunting, while a dog’s is more suited for tracking – it may not necessarily be that talent that’s getting them home. So although it is possible that they are using ‘smell markers’, we’re actually still not sure if this is how they can find their way home over great distances.
Scientists have also suggested that iron in their ears and skin allows cats to detect magnetic fields in the Earth, like an inbuilt natural compass.
Pigeons
Homing pigeons probably – we always have to be fairly vague in our terms, because in very few cases can be sure enough about the answers to speak with greater authority – use some kind of ‘map and compass’ system. What that means in practice is that they use a combination of the sun (by day), the stars (by night) and the Earth’s magnetic field to act as a compass to get them close to their desired destination.
What they are using as a ‘map’ to hone in even further is vaguer still, with suggestions including that they use environmental cues such as the smell of atmospheric gas, the intensity of the magnetic field, or even infrasound such as a low-frequency rumble emanating from their lofts.
Salmon
Salmon can travel for great distances, as they spawn in freshwater but need to be in the sea to feed and grow. It has been shown, for example, that salmon that were born in South and West England subsequently migrated to the west coast of Greenland. And, as we all know, salmon need to return to where they were born to reproduce.
You may not think that fish would have acute senses. But it turns out that salmon use very similar processes to pigeons when it comes to finding their way back ‘home’, in that they use a combination of the Earth’s magnetic field to get them back to the rough location of their birth, then using familiar smells to reach the exact place. And they can perform remarkable feats on their way, leaping vertical obstacles up to three metres high to make sure they get there!
Here at Green Lane Farm Boarding Kennels, we deal with a wide range of animals of all kinds (although not salmon very often!), and know just how amazing they can be.
Easily accessible to those living in and near Surrey, including Chessington and Kingston, we’re your leading local kennels and cattery, equipped to look after all kinds of pets for owners while they’re away or even just at work for the day.
Get in touch with us now to find out more or to book a stay for your own little marvel of nature.
