Book Review: The Homing Instinct - Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration

The Monarch Butterfly has a Unique Migration Pattern

Fascinating reading inside the covers of this book:

• Pacific Salmon use scent to find their way to spawning grounds.

• Birds use a variety of mechanisms to migrate that include magnetic poles and parental coaching. The author introduces us to a pair of Sandhill Cranes that have nested in the same Alaskan bog for over 15 years.

• Locust swarms are native grasshoppers that change their appearance and behavior in response to crowding.

• Still murky theories have American and European Eels spawning in the same Atlantic Sargasso Sea. The larvae rely on currents to drift enormous distances back to freshwater rivers and lakes.

Bernd Heinrich explores these and many other scientific explanations for animal migration, relocation, and homemaking in his book The Homing Instinct - Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration. He reveals interesting detail on theories, historical anecdotes, and experiments all related to solving questions about animal movement. This book is interesting and well-written for anyone curious about the behavior of animals.