In 2003, [scientists Marie Dacke, Eric Warrant,] and others discovered that nocturnal dung beetles can navigate by the polarized light of the moon—the first animal shown to do so, although many probably can, Warrant said. ‘But we noticed that on many nights the moon didn’t come up until much later,’ he said. ‘Yet our beetles kept on rolling in straight lines—not quite as straight, but pretty straight.’ 

Other animals, including seals, some birds, and us, can navigate by individual stars, but dung beetles probably can’t; their eyes aren’t sensitive or well-resolved enough to detect points of light. More likely, the researchers thought, the beetles were cuing to the Milky Way…

Follow this link to continue reading Alan Burdick on the recent, important discovery about dung beetle navigation: http://nyr.kr/X5wSUP

(Source: newyorker.com)

Read David Grann’s 2004 piece on the competitive search for the sea’s most elusive creature, the giant squid: http://nyr.kr/3cCqqo

(Video via The Guardian.)

Cartoon of the night.  For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/OJIB6l