Animal Navigation Group

The Animal Navigation Group (ANG) provides a focal point for members interested in animal migration, orientation and navigation within the RIN. Currently there are 249 members. The Group acts as a forum to disseminate news on animal navigation, orientation and migration through its newsletter and conferences which run on a three year cycle. The next of these conferences will be RIN 11.

The Chairman, Dr Peter Fraser, a PhD from Aberdeen University, is interested in marine animals. He was the first person to identify a sense organ linked to balance in these which responds to hydrostatic pressure allowing depth perception. Present work ranges from plotting depth and temperature ranges of sharks and working out how the pressure sensor could work at the nanometer level scale. The Secretary, Dr Theresa Burt de Perera , a PhD from Oxford University, is interested in spatial cognition in animals, particularly fish. Currently, Theresa is using the blind Mexican cave fish as a model to explore the way in which a three-dimensional map of space can be built.

Newsletters, published twice each year, are drafted by Air Cdre 'Pinky' Grocott and edited by Dr T Burt de Perera, Oxford University, Hon. Sec. Animal Navigation Group. This year has proved to be a bumper year for papers on animal migration and navigation. Therefore it will come as no surprise to learn that the Autumn 2008 Newsletter is the largest ever, containing 81 items, this number being reached after the size of the Newsletter has been reduced by Dr T Burt de Perera from 41 to 32 pages. The span of topics is as wide as ever, covering such topics as 'The marine temperature and depth preferences of Arctic Charr and Sea Trout, as recorded by data storage tags', 'Wind selection and drift compensation optimize migratory pathways in a high-flying moth', 'Orientation of birds in total darkness',  'Exploration and navigation in the blind mole rat' and 'Shedding light on animal cryptochromes. Members may access this Newsletter and previous Newsletters through the 'Resources' button at the top of this page. RIN members who wish to join the ANG should contact the RIN Administrator.
  
In addition to the newsletter and the online discussion board, the ANG runs an e-mail animal navigation forum to provide an international link between research scientists and other interested people over the whole range of research disciplines that relate to animal navigation, including orientation, migration, neurobiology, animal behaviour, sensory physiology and ecology. It was formed in 2000 and has 383 members, mostly Professors and PhD experimental biologists, drawn from 34 countries around the world. To join the new e-mail animal-forum either follow the 'Rules'  or send an e-mail to pinkygrocott@btopenworld.com
 
The BBC is running a series entitled "World on the move". It is an attempt to track great animal migrations and invites particpation by the public. Details are at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/worldonthemove/programmes/ 
 
Link to HighWire Press Stanford University Free Online Full-text Articles http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl/

Link to Animal Migration Group Lund University

http://orn-lab.ekol.lu.se/birdmigration/index.php?cat=srch&lng=en

Link to Professor Menzel's website 'Neurobiology and the Behavior of the Honeybee

http://www.neurobiologie.fu-berlin.de/menzel/publications.html

Link to Professor Kamil's 'Center for avian cognition' website http://bsweb.unl.edu/avcog/personnel/kamil.htm

Link to Monarch Butterfly website 'Monarch Watch' http://www.MonarchWatch.org

Link to Advanced Concepts Team - Biomimetics - European Space Agency

http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/bio/index.htm

Link to Government of Quebec - Satellite Telemetry Maps of Caribou Migrations

http://www.mrnf.gouv.qc.ca:80/english/wildlife/maps-caribou/maps.jsp