Donald Redfield Griffin was an American professor of zoology at various universities who conducted seminal research in animal behavior, animal navigation, acoustic orientation and sensory biophysics. In 1938, while an undergraduate at Harvard University, he began studying the navigational method of bats, which he identified as animal echolocation in 1944. In The Question of Animal Awareness (1976), he argued that animals are conscious like humans. Griffin was the originator of the concept of mentophobia: the denial of the consciousness of other animals by scientists.
Donald Griffin
Animal navigation is the ability of many animals to find their way accurately without maps or instruments. Birds such as the Arctic tern, insects such as the monarch butterfly and fish such as the salmon regularly migrate thousands of miles to and from their breeding grounds, and many other species navigate effectively over shorter distances.
Manx shearwaters can fly straight home when released, navigating thousands of miles over land or sea.
The sandhopper, Talitrus saltator, uses the Sun and its internal clock to determine direction.
Rayleigh sky model shows how polarization of light can indicate direction to bees.
The homing pigeon can quickly return to its home, using cues such as the Earth's magnetic field to orient itself.
