However, the recent work of Treiber et al. (2012) that questions the structure and location of magnetoreceptors could actually be viewed as a strength and sign of health: of a field that welcomes new results that may force revisions of current models of understanding. While many aspects of navigation are unresolved, as this review indicates, that does not mean that
there is no data. While the models for studying navigation are imperfect, closer links between laboratory work and field work are being established, and the addition of new technology for studying animals in the wild will broadened our understanding of the behaviour of migrating birds and the challenges they face (Guilford et al., 2011). The integration of neurobiology, RXDX-106 manufacturer physics and molecular biology into the discipline is now well established and has led to a number of breakthroughs in our understanding of the magnetic sense as well as Selleckchem Ulixertinib the role of the olfactory sense in navigation. The integration of these disciplines
has led to testable predictions about the structure of sensory systems and potentially the mechanisms of navigation. For the field to advance further, the link between these disciplines and behavioural biology needs to strengthen further, in order to reduce the ‘black box’ understanding of some of the systems involved. For example, a better knowledge of the structure of the ferromagnetic sense will allow better predictions
about the effect of magnetic pulse treatments to understand how receptors are changed by the treatment. Strengthening this integration of other disciplines, while maintaining the roots as a behavioural biology discipline, will ultimately lead to the solution of the ‘mystery’ of bird navigation. I will finish this review by highlighting some of the key issues that should be resolved in order for the field of true navigation in migratory birds to advance. (1) Is the true navigation map unimodal, that is one environmental cue provides all information on location, bimodal, medchemexpress that is two separate environmental cues provide different aspects of the location (e.g. latitude and longitude), or redundant, that is do multiple cues provide the same information for different aspects of the location. Solving this will help to understand some of the inconsistencies and conflicting evidence in the field, as it will establish whether failure to repeat is a consequence of experimental design rather than redundancy of cues. I thank John Phillips and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the paper. Aspects of this review also came as a result of enjoyable discussions with the Navigation Special Interest Group at the MIGRATE NSF funded meeting in Konstanz, 2010 with Susanna Åkesson, Verner Bingman, Tim Guilford, Anna Gagliardo, Henrik Mouritsen, Rachel Muheim, Rosie Wiltschko and Wolfgang Wiltschko.