Do Chickadees have an inherited star map?

[newtonian]

Back in 1965 Vitus B. Droscher reported in chapter 13 of his book “The Mysterious Senses of Animals” that blackcap chickadees had an inherited celestial star map. <br /><br />The experiments were done in the Olbers Planetarium of the Bremen Maritime Academy by German zoologist Dr. Franz Sauer and his wife.<br /><br />Essentially, blackcaps navigate at night and can do so when it is partly cloudy but not when it is overcast. <br /><br />The Sauers used blackcaps hatched without being exposed to the night sky, and their navigation had to be inherited, not learned.<br /><br />Do we have any updates in the research done on blackcaps in the last 40 years?<br /><br />BTW - this was a very old thread, I think. I forget the answers posted!

 

[xmo1]

The behavior is caused by Magnetite in the brain. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>DenniSys.com</p> </div>

 

[billslugg]

Magnetite based navigational clues rotate with the Earth. These Chickadees are able to navigate relative to the celestial sphere. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[docm]

Magnetite has also been found in the human brain. IRRC it was in 1992. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[xmo1]

The North Pole and the North Celestial Pole point in the same direction. Magnetic is only slightly off course. Anyway, I'll take a look at the text. It looks interesting. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>DenniSys.com</p> </div>

 

[kmarinas86]

<font color="yellow">The experiments were done in the Olbers Planetarium of the Bremen Maritime Academy by German zoologist Dr. Franz Sauer and his wife.</font><br /><br />Was the planetarium aligned with the true night sky? If not, then it appears that this has little to do with magnetite.