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Seals Use Astronomy as Navigation Aid

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

trux

~~~~~
Dec 9, 2005
6,522
767
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From Universe Today (original source New Scientist):
Mammals such as whales are known to exhibit "skyhopping" behaviour when they surface from the water to have a look around, but seals go one step further; they can recognise and orientate themselves with the stars

In a revealing study, researchers at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense have discovered that seals have the ability to recognise stars and groups of stars inside a modified planetarium. A five-metre round pool plus two harbour seals were covered with a dome with 6000 point light sources to simulate the Northern Hemisphere's starry sky.

This study strongly suggests that these two harbour seals have an amazing, natural ability to recognise the distribution of stars on a clear night.
babyharpseal2-250x187.jpg
 
That bugger that scared me shitless last weekend definitely had a Patrick Moore like squint!
 
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