The role of maps in long-distance animal navigation

Understanding the mechanisms by which animals achieve complex navigational feats over long distances is an important challenge in the field of contemporary animal behaviour. In particular, the ways in which animals cognitively process, represent and utilise navigationally relevant information are of fundamental interest, with implications for the fields of animal learning, cognition and beyond. One crucial concept within animal navigation is the idea that animals use maps in order to navigate; this has been central to the field since Kramer (1953) suggested that animals use a map and a compass in order to navigate over long distances and Tolman (1948) introduced the concept of cognitive maps. Indeed, map concepts have been applied widely, to a range of navigational behaviours and beyond, with the cognitive representation of information which underpins non-spatial behaviours increasingly attributed to "cognitive maps". Maps have long been recognised as being key in facilitating long-distance animal navigation, with a great deal of experimental research investigating the sensory basis of animal maps. We propose to use a variety of theoretical and experimental approaches to investigate the cognitive bases of map use in long-distance navigation and aim to move beyond the sensory basis of maps to consider the ways in which map information is learned and cognitively represented by animals. Neural network models will allow us to investigate the possible associative mechanisms by which animals learn to use map information. This will be complemented by experimental work, most likely using the model species of avian navigation, pigeons, Columba livia.