The Homing Instinct

Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration

Bernd Heinrich

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English

Harper Collins
25 May 2015

Mathematics & Sciences; Wildlife: general interest

The story and science of how animals find their way home.

Home is the place we long for most, when we feel we have travelled too far, for too long. Since boyhood, acclaimed scientist and author Bernd Heinrich has returned every year to a beloved patch of woods in his native western Maine. But while it’s the pull of nostalgia that informs our desire to go back, what is it that drives the homing instinct in animals?

Heinrich explores the fascinating science behind the mysteries of animal migration: how geese imprint true visual landscape memory over impossible distances; how the subtlest of scent trails are used by many creatures, from fish to insects to amphibians, to pinpoint their home; and how the tiniest of songbirds are equipped for solar and magnetic orienteering over vast distances. Most movingly, Heinrich chronicles the spring return of a pair of sandhill cranes to their pond in the Alaska tundra. With his marvellously evocative prose, Heinrich portrays the psychological state of the newly arrived birds, articulating just what their yearly return truly means, to the birds and to those fortunate enough to witness this transcendently beautiful ritual.

The Homing Instinct is an enchanting study of this phenomenon of the natural world, reminding us that to discount our own feelings toward home is to ignore biology itself.

By: Bernd Heinrich
Imprint: Harper Collins
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9780007595853
ISBN 10: 0007595859
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 25 May 2015
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Bernd Heinrich is an acclaimed scientist and author of numerous books, including the bestselling Winter World, Mind of the Raven, and Why We Run. He writes for Scientific American, Outside, American Scientist, and Audubon, and has contributed to the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Among Heinrich's many honours is the 2013 PEN New England Award for Nonfiction, for Life Everlasting.

Reviews for The Homing Instinct: Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration

`Wonderful' Sunday Telegraph Praise for Bernd Heinrich: `Heinrich, who combines his keen scientific eye with the soul of a poet, enthralls.' New York Times `One of the finest living examples of that strange hybrid: the science writer.' Los Angeles Times