1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com

NON REASONING
TRAVELERS
BUT
WITH the coming of fall,
millions of birds in the
Northern Hemisphere take to
the wing and head south in a
mass migration that carries
some of them many thousands
of miles. High-flying ducks and
geese pass in formation over city
after city without the benefit of radio
beacons and other electronic
guidance systems that keep human
air travelers from becoming lost. At
lower altitudes clouds of smaller
birds pass by with equal disregard
for knowledge about the science of
navigation. How is it possible for these
nonreasoning creatures to navigate accurately
over great distances while intelligent
humans are unable to do it without
the aid of precision-made instruments?
The songbirds known as warblers live
in north European countries during the
spring and summer, but in September they
begin heading south. Their destination is
Africa, including its southern part. Although
this is a trip of several thousand
miles, they navigate it with surprising accuracy.
Unlike ducks, the warblers do not
make the trip in groups that follow leaders.
Each is an individual traveler.
Possibly the longest route that is flown
by migrating birds is that followed by
Arctic terns. Every year they make a
round trip between the Arctic and the Antarctic,
with some flying a distance of about
25,000 miles. With equally good navigational
ability, the bristle-thighed curlew
flies 6,000 miles from Alaska to Tahiti in
a migratory flight. For more than 2,000
miles of this trip, between Alaska and the
AUGUST 22, 1964
Hawaiian Islands, the birds must fly nonstop
over open ocean with no landmarks to
help them to find their way.
Not even a previous knowledge of a
route is necessary for migratory birds to
fly accurately to their destination, although
that destination may be nothing
more than a speck of land surrounded by
hundreds of miles of water. Young birds
making the trip for the first time manifest
the same ability as the older birds for
navigating accurately.
In a test of a bird's ability to find its
way over unknown territory, some investigators
sent a Manx shearwater from England
to the United States by plane. There
it was released. Within twelve days it was
back in its nest on the west coast of England,
having flown more than 3,000 miles
over an unfamiliar route, Certain types of
pigeons manifest a somewhat similar homing
ability. When released in unfamiliar
territory, they will circle briefly and then
head off in the right direction for their
lofts.
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