Study
Long-distance navigation and magnetoreception in migratory animals
Mouritsen, Henrik
Nature, 2018
A synthesis of experimental work on how migratory animals find their way, covering sun and star compasses, magnetic sensing, olfactory cues and the evidence for map-like position sense.
- Studied in
- Aves, Chelonioidea, Lepidoptera
- Sample size
- review of the migratory navigation literature
Navigation in migratory animals is multi-sensory and redundant: compasses of several kinds are well established, while the mechanism of the magnetic sense and the existence of a true positional map remain unresolved.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Magnetoreception most likely involves light-dependent radical-pair chemistry in the eye, but no single proposed mechanism is yet established.
How NatureHQ reads it
The useful correction here is against the common statement that animals "have a magnetic sense" as though the matter were settled. Compass orientation using the magnetic field is well demonstrated. *How* the field is detected is not, and the difference between knowing which way is north and knowing where you are is one popular coverage almost never draws.
- A review, so it inherits the limitations of the studies it draws on.
- The magnetoreception literature has a history of results that resisted replication.
- Evidence is concentrated in a few well-studied migratory species.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Nature PortfolioPublished in a Nature Portfolio journal.
doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0176-1
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref and OpenAlex on 2026-08-11.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-09.