Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their Way Hardcover – Import, 28 May 2019

Very disappointed when book arrived to discover this was not a new book from David Barrie, but the same as Incredible Journeys with a different name and cover. This should be advertised more clearly as it is very misleading. I am only so disappointed because the book is actually fantastic and I was really hoping for a sequel.

If you want to know how the creatures on this planet navigate to where they are going, wait a few years, maybe more. The words that stand out in each chapter of this book are: may, might, possibly, could, perhaps, in theory, and similar. What Barrie has done in a non-technical but scientifically respectful way is detail the astounding abilities of even the most humble animal lifeforms. From the dung beetle to the bluefin tuna, from the silver Y moth to the green turtle, from arctic terns to elephants, rats, and humans, the mechanisms of navigation are at once complex and poorly understood. And no wonder. The means by which creatures see, hear, smell, feel, and sense such forces as magnetism are varied and hard to study. A creature may use a variety of senses in combination or sequence, depending on what information is available. A few species can be studied in a lab, although that is hardly a natural environment. Field studies are messy and often raise more questions than they answer. For some migrants, we can only marvel at how they navigate over hundreds or thousands of kilometres to an incredibly precise destination and speculate as to what methods they may be using.Barrie takes the reader on a grand tour of navigators, including well-known migrants like the Monarch butterfly. He presents tiny creatures who roam over short distances but always seem to know where they are and how to get home. He describes the ability of Inuit hunters to navigate without any instruments in a whiteout.His final chapter contains a warning about the extent to which humans no longer have to deal with the natural world. We depend on others to grow our food, build our shelters and make our clothes. We are a species that for thousands of years explored the planet with only our physical senses and brains to guide us. Even the compass and sextant required us to pay attention to the world around us. Now with GPS, we are becoming navigational idiots.Berries style is highly readable, the subject matter fascinating, and the book is informative without being pedantic. I highly recommend it.

When I was a boy, I remember hearing that Monarch Butterflies annually migrate from as far north as the Canadian prairies, to Southern Mexico, some 3,000 miles away. When I asked my mother how they managed it, she replied “Instinct, I imagine,” and as I grew up, I learned no better. I figured somebody long ago invented the term “instinct” to explain everything from the pole-to-pole migrations of arctic terns to the miraculous upstream journeys of salmon and the homing “instincts” of pigeons.Aw, come on!Happily for every animal lover who likes a great read, award-winning author David Barrie has written the book I’ve longed for all my life. He’s uncovered the incredible-but-true answers for all this and much, much more—-without once taking cowardly recourse to the word “instinct!”In so doing, Barrie has also shown something I’ve long believed with a passion. “Lower animals” from bears and whales all the way to birds, fish and insects—these beautiful creatures are actually gifted with staggering powers of perception and minds that dwarf our own in their ability to compute the results and plot courses all over the world, with uncanny accuracy.Did you know that many animals cannot just steer by the sun and stars, but “read” earth’s magnetic field easily as you read these words? Did you know pigeons can read “sound signatures” in the atmosphere to race home? Did you dream that your own ancestors —and some living indigenous people—- navigated from Africa to Asia, Australia, the Americas and remote Pacific islands using similar equipment lying latent in our own bodies?Barrie’s no starry-eyed dreamer but a gifted navigator himself, and he’s personally discussed and documented his findings by meeting with scientists on the forefront of this exciting research. This is a must-read for every animal lover, anyone who owns a compass, any bird-watcher—and anyone with the curiosity to learn the incredible truth behind the word “instinct.”

I recently finished ths book after finishing An Immense World by Ed Yong and both of these books provide great insights into how animals sense their environment. This book seems to focus more on the navigational capabilities (in keeping with the title), but it does also explore various ways that insects, birds, and mammals can use different features to detect where we are and where we should go. it was interesting to note that several animals have differences in their capabilities between when they are young and when they are older. The book explores some species I'd never heard of before and it is easy to understand and accessible. Great book for anyone who is curious!

Captivating, well-explained accounts of the myriad mechanisms by which animals, including humans, navigate through space primarily, but also through time and among social groups and conceptual systems.Ends with a strong argument against the anthropocentrism at the root of our tolerance of climate change and habitat destruction.Overall, an exemplary work of science writing, with the right balance of facts and logic, storytelling, human interest, and connection to current affairs.