Think humans are good at navigation? Think again. Compared to
some of the mesmerizing navigational abilities of birds and
other species, human navigation is actually quite primitive.
Here is our third and final part of our facts series about
animal navigation from Nature’s Compass: The Mystery of Animal
Navigation by James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould. Click here
to read part 1 and click here to read part 2 of our fun facts
series. Honeybee fact: The sun is a very important navigational
tool for bees both in communicating the direction of a food
resource and in finding the way home. As vital as the sun is,
bees have trouble seeing it. It is hard for them to actually
identify the sun in the sky because their visual resolution does
not allow them to identify the sun as a unique shape. As a rule
of thumb for bees, if a bright spot contains no more than 20%
ultraviolet light and is no larger than 15° across, then it is
the sun. Bird fact: In unfamiliar territory, birds must be able
to estimate the amount of dis