Supernavigators: How Animals Find Their Way

Supernavigators is a great read for anyone who has ever wondered about how animals manage to find their way over such long distances using just their instincts. This version has been adapted from the original adult title Incredible Journeys, which published in 2020.

It covers familiar and possibly unfamiliar topics within animal navigation that gives the reader an insight into animal behaviour that we may not think twice about. It features different kinds of migration from bird migration to grassland animals in Africa who take part in the Great Migration. It also looks at the senses used to navigate such as bats and echolocation, how sight and light affect journeys, how smells help animals find their homes and more unusual skills like using magnetic sense which give birds an inner compass to help determine where they need to go, and how fish used lateral lines and pressure to move together as a group. It also covers more human-like navigation skills such as using landmarks and memory, reading the stars and position of the sun and moon to determine time of year as well as direction.

What I found was a pleasant addition was the section about how we humans affect animals and their navigation. This was humbling after reading chapter after chapter about how incredible animals were, to then be reading about how we stop them being able to do what they’ve done for many, many generations. Whether that’s environmental issues like fertilisers and climate change, or man-made problems like reflective glass and light pollution. There is a helpful section on how we can help reverse or change some of these issues and some good news stories too.

The illustrations are done in a block printing style with simple detailing and muted colours. The range of readers who may pick this book up is quite wide- I’d suspect it would be useful in primary schools to compliment topics but look of the book would attract older readers too, making it useful in secondary schools as well.

Overall this is a brilliant book for those wishing to deep-dive into animal navigation behaviours whether for schoolwork and study or leisure reading.