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Science 12 January 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5502, pp. 264 - 265
DOI: 10.1126/science.1058147
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Perspectives

ECOLOGY:
Bird Navigation--Computing Orthodromes

Rudiger Wehner

There are many theories about how migrating birds navigate as Wehner explains in his Perspective. He discusses new findings obtained with radar on a Canadian coast guard icebreaker vessel, which show that Arctic seabirds are able to faithfully follow the great-circle (orthodrome) routes of far northern latitudes most probably by steering with their sun compass while keeping their internal clock out of phase with local time (Alerstam et al.).

The author is in the Department of Zoology, University of Zürich, Zürich CH-8057, Switzerland. E-mail: rwehner{at}zool.unizh.ch

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)