Seals Use Astronomy as Navigation Aid

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.
…

Click to expand...