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Joe Sullivan, Jan. '97
"Model Systems in Neuroethology: The Hippocampus in Navigation
http://nelson.beckman.illinois.edu/courses/neuroethol/models/spatial_learning/spatial_learning.html

In the home page of a graduate-level seminar entiteld "Topics in Neuroethology" once held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cahmpaign
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Animals reference reliable celestial landmarks like the sun, moon, and stars to navigate. Blackcap warblers migrate from Europe to subsaharan Africa using the stars. Homing pigeons use the magnetic field for navigation as well. All these sensory systems give the brain information to find the best path from one spot to another.


Animals must be able to answer life's navigation problems efficiently and flexibly.


The brain must have awareness of current position and the direction in which the nose is pointing. Planned movement must be informed by an awareness of the starting point and the final location to achieve. The hippocampus and cortex select the straightest, most efficient path. Separate but interacting circuits of the limbic system and associated cortex monitor position or direction.



A rat may have a den for pups and
separate spots to scavenge for food. Caribou, arctic terns, and sperm whales travel great distances to follow
seasonal blooms of food or to find a mate.


   - Salmon locate exact spawning grounds aided by a unique blend of olfactory clues from the watershed for each stream.
   - Blackcap warblers migrate from Europe to subsaharan Africa using the stars. 
   - Homing pigeons use the magnetic field for navigation as well.




Blackcap warblers migrate from Europe to subsaharan Africa using the
stars. Homing pigeons use the magnetic field for navigation as well.


Animals must be able to answer life's navigation problems efficiently and flexibly.

Arriving at the most 

efficient response to a challenge requires selection of relevant enviromental cues and the capability to plan
an action based on memory of similar problems.



seems Intelligent behaviour more or less

Navigating of animals in a familiar surrounding

   - Merriam's kangaroo rat can learn the distribution of food patches around its nest in three evenings of foraging. 
   - Marmoset monkeys reliably relocate food sites and do not revisit a place where food was already eaten on that foraging trip.
   - Black-capped chickadees hide insects and seeds in numerous, widely spread caches in trees over its home range.