Animal Navigation
AG Neurosensorik (Animal Navigation)
- a search for behavioral and physiological navigation mechanisms
The long-distance navigational abilities of animals have fascinated humans for centuries and challenged scientists for decades. How is a butterfly with a brain weighing less than 0.02 grams able to find its way to a very specific wintering site thousands of kilometers away, even though it has never been there before? And, how does a migratory bird circumnavigate the globe with a precision unobtainable by human navigators before the emergence of GPS satellites? To answer these questions, multi-disciplinary approaches are needed. Our group and its collaborators use mathematical modelling, physics, quantum chemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, histology, computer simulations and newly developed laboratory equipment in combination with behavioral experiments and analyses of field data to achieve a better understanding of the behavioral and physiological mechanisms of long distance navigation in insects and birds.
The group is supported by a Lichtenberg Professorship grant from The VolkswagenStiftung and several grants from the DFG. We are also part of the DFG Forschergruppe 701 "Dynamic and stability of retinal processing".
The members of our workgroup
(CVs can be found by clicking on the photos)
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Prof. Dr. Henrik Mouritsen
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Copyright © 1996-2007 Henrik Mouritsen