Orientation strategies for long distance travel in terrestrial mammals, including humans

Abstract

The accurate mapping of routes taken by North American red squirrels in their spontaneous or experimentally induced long distance travels suggests tactics and strategies involving route-based orientation, systematic search and a minimal load on the working and reference memories of the animals. Straightness of travel and independence between direction-to-goal and distance-to-goal estimations are claimed to be key elements in the process. The results of pilot experiments on the «homing» behavior of humans fit well into this conceptual framework.