Nature’s GPS: how animals use the natural world to perform extraordinary feats of navigation

Migration is a challenging strategy. For small animals like songbirds to be able to return from Africa or southern Europe to areas where they can successfully breed, they need to be able to repeatedly navigate to precisely the same place. How they do this is a question that has vexed scientists for over 60 years.

But recent evidence is shedding light on how tiny animals – with correspondingly tiny brains – can cross mountains, oceans and deserts without getting lost.