Salmon born with internal compass
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027680
BBC : It’s been known for some time that Pacific salmon use Earth’s magnetic field to navigate between their spawning ground and the ocean. It now appears that the fish are born with an internal “magnetic map” that helps them orient themselves within a specific geographic area. Nathan Putman of Oregon State University and colleagues put salmon hatchlings in buckets and changed the magnetic field around them. The researchers found that the salmon, which were not old enough to have made their first migration to the sea, changed their direction in the bucket in response to the change in the magnetic field. Putman and colleagues, whose findings are published in Current Biology, believe that could explain the extraordinary navigational abilities of certain long-distance underwater migratory animals.
