A group of researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill published that explores how turtles navigate the ocean.
The team found that loggerhead turtles can map the ocean by recognizing magnetic signatures. This allows them to return to learned feeding spots and navigate thousands of miles while migrating.
It鈥檚 the first study to prove migratory animals learn this kind of navigation.
Ken Lohmann is a professor of biology at UNC that worked on the study. He said the findings are notable considering the environment sea turtles live in.
"Animals on land, amphibians, for example, or birds, have access to lots of other information,鈥� Lohmann said. 鈥淭hey can see landmarks, for example. But in the middle of the ocean, there is not really very much to rely on."
The study also provides possible explanations for where sea turtles鈥� ability to sense the signatures comes from. Lohmann said a definite answer will require further research.
鈥淲ith sea turtles, they're a protected species, so you can't cut them open and go looking at the brain,鈥� Lohmann said. 鈥淵ou have to use behavioral approaches to learn about how the sense might work."
One behavioral cue Lohmann and the researchers looked for when assessing the results was "turtle dancing.鈥� It's how the turtles indicated they remembered a magnetic signature of an area of where they found food.
As for the implications of the study, Lohmann said future researchers might look at similar mechanisms in other migratory animals, like fish or birds. Kayla Goforth, the graduate student that led this project, is now studying monarch butterflies 鈥� another well-known migratory species 鈥� in her postdoctoral work at Texas A&M University.
鈥淥ur results show that even within one species, you can have two different ways of sensing the magnetic field,鈥� Lohmann said. 鈥淪o, my guess is that it will turn out that lots of different animals have different approaches to detecting the magnetic fields, but time will tell.鈥�
The study has already been published in the digital version of scientific journal but will appear on the front cover of their next physical issue.
Included video of a young loggerhead exhibiting the "turtle dancing" behavior is courtesy of Ken Lohmann at UNC-Chapel Hill.
