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Learning about the navigational feats of animals

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Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#61

Post by rlander »

dsego wrote: post #34
Grazester wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 no…

Male cats are usually the ones to go out and then come back in a few days, next time few weeks, then months... and then they disappear for good. I've never had a female cat go away like that.

Does that apply to neutered males?

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#62

Post by Tade0 »

uh_uh wrote: post #36
tchvil wrote: post #12

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!

How is this possible? What was the signal that told the cat it was going in the right or wrong direction?

If she travelled with the cat it might have picked up all the scents along the way, but I'm not sure if cats are even capable of doing that.

Or better: the cat snuck into a familiarly smelling train and got out at the right stop.

We used to move back and forth every few months between two cities 1500km apart. Our cat could tell if he was in any of those two cities - he would suddenly start meowing, wanting to get out of the car.

He was very consistent in this. He wouldn't do that when we were driving through any other city.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#63

Post by detritus »

ShawnCleverdon wrote: post #53
detritus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm sure I read a year or two back that Cats have an odd sense of direction in which they don't 'join up' different paths - say, that from out of the front of a building, to that out of the back. Rings true with a cat we have in our building here which simply cannot register that the back door has access for it, so waits out front no matter how inclement the weather. Mind you, it IS a cat - so likely purposeful…

Please stop perpetuating the myth that cats are "arseholes". Cats, much like dogs, and every other non-human on the planet, have different drives and understandings than a human. Just because we aren't capable of fully understanding those drives isn't a reason to denigrate them. The next time your cat does something that is outside of your understanding, please have a little compassion.

Illiterality gets me nowhere.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#64

Post by akiselev »

willvarfar wrote: post #8
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…

Monarch butterflies are tracked by tags, rather like ringing birds Source https://monarchjointventure.org/faq/track-the-migration

Monarch butterflies are tracked by people, who use the unique identifiers on the passive tags to identify butterflies and record where they were spotted/captured. The tags themselves are no more than a sticker designed to stick to butterflies without impeding or harming them - they started making them in 1992, afterall.

GP is talking about active tags that get their coordinates by using GPS satellites and (I assume) phone home in some way.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#65

Post by cortesoft »

ssr2020 wrote: post #33
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…

Every year thousans of birds, animals migrate thousand of kilometers and they do not lose their way. This is a proof they knows how to find their ways. It is understood that navigation has been taught and equipped for them.

Every year thousands of humans migrate thousands of kilometers without getting lost. That doesn’t mean humans can’t get lost.

There is a lot of survivorship bias in your assumption. How many animals fail to complete those migrations?

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#66

Post by ourmandave »

clairity wrote: post #49
ourmandave wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We lost our cat and months later got a call from the shelter. The neighbor down and around the corner had saved him from his dog and brought him in. They IDed him from the chip. Later at the vet, they told us cats can get lost being only a few houses away. I imagine it's a whole different perspective seeing things from one foot off the ground.

i found a kitten crying under a car in front of my building 2 1/2 months ago. after i bathed him and fed him (he gulped down 3 helpings of food!), he set up camp like he owned the place, to the dismay of my dog and cat. i learned later he’d been outside for about 4 days. i found the owner, who lived a couple blocks away, via his chip as well. she was in recovery from an accident and was reluctant to take him back, so…

You're good people, clairity.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#67

Post by burnte »

KMag wrote: post #32
detritus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm sure I read a year or two back that Cats have an odd sense of direction in which they don't 'join up' different paths - say, that from out of the front of a building, to that out of the back. Rings true with a cat we have in our building here which simply cannot register that the back door has access for it, so waits out front no matter how inclement the weather. Mind you, it IS a cat - so likely purposeful…

To be fair, I know lots of people who will walk 2 sides of a triangle because they know how to get from A to B and A to C, but just don't have a sense that B and C are rather close. I think they feel there's probably a shortcut between B and C, but they just don't have the sense of direction to just walk in the general direction from B toward C until things start looking familiar. I also can't count the number of tim…

I've had android phones for 11 years. Every single one gets my orientation wrong when driving but stopped. If I'm at an intersection stopped, and open Maps, it thinks I'm pointing in the direction opposite my real orientation EVERY SINGLE TIME. On all the phones I've had, I swear to god there's a flag on my google account that was used 11 years ago and fogotten about that fixed a bad compass or something.

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#68

Post by bitwize »

bsenftner wrote: post #28
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…

Well, I've worked on one such geolocation device about the size of a grain of rice, and that was 30 years ago. It was a tracking device started by a former Israeli military intelligence officer after his family was scattered in a terrorist attack and it was days before everyone could be accounted. This tracking device was the size of a pack of cigarettes' when in development, and by the time I left the company (late…

Small enough to be snuck into a vaccine dose and secretly injected!

Re: Learning about the navigational feats of animals

#70

Post by ulisesrmzroche »

My dog doesn't get lost, he's a giant akita, super sweet and friendly, but I mean, he looks like a wolf. I don't want him getting out, but before he was neutered, and I added an l-footer made out of chicken-wire, he figured out ways to get out.

So I would drive out to go find him and by the time I got back, he was waiting outside the door, barking to get in, usually with some stolen toy at his feet.

Now, I've doggy-proofed the yard so he can't get out, but I don't know how he does it but he never gets lost. No matter how far he goes, he's always back before dinner time.

So that's why I'm always thinking that self-driving cars are not going to happen anytime soon. Everyone's underestimated the problem.

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