Compass Orientation

Kishkinev, Dmitry

Abstract

Compass orientation, in zoology, is the ability of animals to choose and maintain a particular direction using natural cues. Compass orientation should be contrasted with navigation. The latter is a behavior of higher complexity when an animal first needs to detect its own position relative to a destination and then chooses a goal-ward (compass orientation) direction using any available directional references. Thus, compass orientation alone is not enough for goal-finding (navigation) in unfamiliar territories where a “map sense” is required to compare the animal’s current position to its destination. Alignmentis similar in definition to compass orientation but is differentiated by the ability of an animal to maintain a specific angle of its body axis relative to a directional cue and not necessarily during the animal’s movement (e.g., alignment of a resting animal parallel to the Earth’s magnetic field).

Citation

Kishkinev, D. (2017). Compass Orientation. . Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_877-1

• Acceptance Date: Jun 19, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jun 28, 2017
• Publication Date: Jun 28, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 16, 2023
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 1-4
• Series Title: Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior
• ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_877-1
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_877-1#copyright-information
• Additional Information: Received: 23 May 2017, 00:00:00; Accepted: 19 June 2017, 00:00:00; First Online: 28 June 2017