Acetylcholine has long been known to play a role in spatial memory in mammals. They do it the same way that we do: they form and remember memories of space and place using the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, just like humans. This phenomenon is not unlike the process of language learning in humans.īut how can they do this? How can a turtle possibly think its way through migration?
These results suggest a narrow age window, or critical learning period, in which animals must learn to navigate. Naive juveniles under four years old learned to navigate the complex paths just as precisely as experienced local turtles and were able to locate far-off water sources. Would they be able to migrate successfully?įor some, yes. To see just where this incredible migratory behavior came from, we introduced into our site animals without any experience migrating there and monitored their ability to respond to seasonal changes in their habitats. Painted turtles at our research site, which is on conservation land within a patchwork of old growth woodlands and agricultural fields, follow long, intricate routes with amazing precision-specific to within a few meters-to far-off, permanent water sources year after year, returning home again when the seasons next change. For a painted turtle, there’s a lot going on during migration. And that’s not to mention the new predatory threats from both land and air, and the ever-present threat of vehicles when crossing a road. When these turtles take to land each summer, migrating to new habitats when their home ponds dry up, they face seemingly insurmountable odds: scorching heat, dehydration, and the crushing tug of gravity (you can’t just float around anymore). They’re not as charismatic as sea turtles, and they sure don’t travel as far (several kilometers for a painted turtle versus several thousand kilometers for a sea turtle), but what they lack in outward charisma they make up in tenacity. Yep, that turtle-the one you see in virtually every small body of water in the Eastern U.S., as well as occasionally crawling through your backyard or crossing the road by the grocery. We are just now learning that for some animals, the key to a successful migration is all in their heads-complex thought and memory are also necessary for a successful migration.įor nearly a decade, we have studied the roles of cognition, learning and memory in the migration of a fairly atypical species-the painted turtle, common to neighborhood ponds and roadside ditches.
We know that some species use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate with GPS-like precision and others gaze skyward and guide their migration by the stars. Plus, getting your hands on a migrating animal is no easy feat one does not simply sneak alongside a heard of migrating caribou or snorkel with migrating salmon undetected. However, the great distances these animals travel and the difficulty of observing them leaves scientists in the dark about many of the basic behaviors of migration. Technological advances such as satellite tagging have revealed many secrets of migration routes and destinations.
#PAINTED SEATURTLE HOW TO#
How do animals know where and how to migrate? Their migratory means are not exactly easy to study. They return the following year, in many cases to the exact location where their journey began. Faced with unfavorable, often seasonal, changes in climate or habitat quality, animals, from birds to butterflies and wildebeests to sea turtles, migrate vast distances-often thousands of miles-in search of more favorable conditions. Animal migration is one of the most charismatic, awe-inspiring phenomena of the natural world.
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