Learning about the navigational feats of animals • Hacker News Board

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#11

Post by dazc » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 11:59 AM UTC

watwut wrote: post #3

Animals do get lost.

As kids, we had a tortoise that wandered off one day only to be found by complete chance in a neighbours garden many months later. It disappeared again not long after never to be seen again.

Either the tortoise really didn't like us or it just never found its way back?

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#12

Post by tchvil » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:09 PM UTC

My disabled aunt went regularly to Lourdes in France for some hopeful cure.

Once, at the moment to leave to the train station, the cat was nowhere to be found. Heartbroken she left her there, and took the train.

9 months later a dirty and skinny white cat stood in front of her door in the very north of France. The cat crossed the whole country!

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#13

Post by frereubu » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:09 PM UTC

Roark66 wrote: post #2

I'm not quite convinced that "animals don't get lost". How many lost cats never return for every one that does? Did anyone ever make a real study? Also there are other questionable bits in the article for example "We now have geolocation devices light enough to be carried by monarch butterflies". Where are those devices described? For years I've been looking for a reliable GPS tracking for cats that don't require the…

As far as I'm aware you're right about the geolocation devices. This is a great podcast about a guy working on Project ICARUS, where they're working on tracking thousands and thousands of animals with small geolocation devices so we have much better data to work from - https://www.bigbiology.org/season-2#episode43. From what I recall the idea of tracking butterflies was something they were working on but hadn't cracked yet. I think it was towards the end of the podcast, but I'd recommend the whole thing.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#14

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:10 PM UTC

Roark66 wrote: post #2

I'm not quite convinced that "animals don't get lost". How many lost cats never return for every one that does? Did anyone ever make a real study? Also there are other questionable bits in the article for example "We now have geolocation devices light enough to be carried by monarch butterflies". Where are those devices described? For years I've been looking for a reliable GPS tracking for cats that don't require the…

[deleted]

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#15

Post by insickness » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:11 PM UTC

When I lived in an apartment in New York City, I had an indoor cat. One day I was talking to my neighbor with the door open and the cat peeked her head out, sniffing around. She was a stereotypical fraidy cat, always scared of everything, so when she walked out the door, I knew she wouldn't go far, especially when she walked up the stairs outside my apartment. I few minutes later I hear her meowing like crazy. I went up a flight of stairs to find her standing in front of the same exact door as mine, one flight up, meowing to get in.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#16

Post by cosmodisk » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:16 PM UTC

The problem for humans is that the need not to be lost has vanished with modern cities, public transport,and more recently, GPS. Most humans don't actively look for reference points when traveling. I remember going to pick mushrooms with my in-laws in a forest a few miles from their house. My mother in law was navigating it like Mowgli: she knew every single nook and cranny,the specific trees and exits into forest separation lines. I was lost there in 2 min, couldn't tell one tree from another and had no idea where north/south is. The difference between me and her is that she's been doing it for years and 'scans' the forest as soon as she walks in.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#17

Post by _Microft » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:19 PM UTC

Roark66 wrote: post #2

I'm not quite convinced that "animals don't get lost". How many lost cats never return for every one that does? Did anyone ever make a real study? Also there are other questionable bits in the article for example "We now have geolocation devices light enough to be carried by monarch butterflies". Where are those devices described? For years I've been looking for a reliable GPS tracking for cats that don't require the…

I heard that most cats are actually found before they are lost, i.e. well-meaning people bringing them to an animal shelter while the cat would have been perfectly fine on their own. I can not say how they came to that conclusion (a guess: maybe by owners saying that it was perfectly normal for the cat to roam the same distances from home as when they were caught and brought to the shelter?)

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#18

Post by Grazester » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

Roark66 wrote: post #2

I'm not quite convinced that "animals don't get lost". How many lost cats never return for every one that does? Did anyone ever make a real study? Also there are other questionable bits in the article for example "We now have geolocation devices light enough to be carried by monarch butterflies". Where are those devices described? For years I've been looking for a reliable GPS tracking for cats that don't require the…

I have had probably more than a hundred cats throughout my childhood more than 13(kittens) at one given point. All my cats were outside/indoor cats free to go and come and I am convinced that the cats that would go out and not come back were either killed by dogs in the surrounding neighborhoods or simply didn't not want to come back. The cats that would not usually return were the older ones. If a younger cat did not return then I assumed it was dead.

We had given a few cats aways and they would sometimes come back home after a week or so. We lived on a mountain and my Aunt miles away in the valley and a cat we gave her came right back home. We gave away another few that did the same thing this time in even further locations.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#19

Post by guerrilla » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC

dazc wrote: post #11

watwut wrote: post #3

Animals do get lost.

As kids, we had a tortoise that wandered off one day only to be found by complete chance in a neighbours garden many months later. It disappeared again not long after never to be seen again. Either the tortoise really didn't like us or it just never found its way back?

Or it had everything it needed without you...

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#20

Post by Fargren » Sat, Apr 03, 2021, 12:25 PM UTC

hyko wrote: post #9

Animals do get lost. On to the next article that takes a fallacy and makes it an axiom.

You are reading the title as "Why animals don't ever get lost". That's one way to read the title. It can also be interpreted as "Why animals don't often get lost", or in other words, "What mechanisms do animals use to avoid getting lost." Which is an interesting question.