I read this fascinating article in Time about the amazing ability of animals to navigate hundreds of miles to find their homes:  http://science.time.com/2013/02/11/the-mystery-of-the-geolocating-cat/.

The opening of the article is about a cat who made it home after being lost hundreds of miles away from home. I have seen various stories like this written over time and have always wondered how these animals were able to find their way home; this article starts to delve a little bit into the topic.

It looks at pigeons, cats, tortoises, and other animals and interestingly some animals use stars to migrate while others are able to use the magnetism of the earth. It seems pretty amazing if true and the article gives a couple of good studies that evidence these phenomena. It is something I am actually pretty interested in learning about now that this article has got me thinking. We all see birds migrate or sea animals travel large distances and I have heard stories of friends’ dogs who traveled 10 miles to find them at work. Clearly, some animals have an innate ability to navigate.

The article is a quick read and at a minimum will make you think about how incredible that ability of animals to find their way around is. I’ll update this after I search around a bit. I am hesitant to conclude too much until I see more data!