Igor Akimushkin is a Soviet biologist and science writer. He is the author of fascinating books about animals “Tracks of Mysterious Beasts”, “The Path of Legends”, “The Primates of the Sea”, “The Crocodile Has Friends, Too” -- which are highly favourite with the readership, as well as several books for children. The “Animal Travellers” is a story of animal wanderers — four-footed, winged and finned — of where they walk, fly and swim, and how they take their bearings en route. The reader will learn about their amazing mechanisms for navigation, which help them in their travels—“echo sounders” and “radars”, “polaroids”, “physiological clock” and “sky compasses”, the intricate methods of “conversation” by a dance performed by honey-bees, and the latest hypotheses and discoveries by scientists studying the mysteries of migration.
Translated from the Russian by Yuri Shirokov, published by Mir in 1973.
THE LURE OF DISTANT LANDS 9
PILGRIMS OF ANCIENT CONTINENTS 15
The Tooth of a Paleotherium 15
Great Gondwana Land 18
How the Horse Began to Run on One Toe 21
The Return of the Prodigal Son 26
A Road Open at Both Ends 32
Africa, Land of Immigrants 35
FLEEING FROM COLD, FAMINE AND DROUGHT 41
Ten Million Ringed Birds 41
Seafaring Loons 45
A Flight from the Arctic to the Antarctic 48
Where do Russian Ducks Winter? 51
Does Every Crane Carry a Landrail on Its Back? 54
The Deer Depart Also 59
South bound Whales 63
Fish Travelling Overland 66
Crocodiles Migrate, Too 69
A Travelling “Meat Store” 72
IN SEARCH OF LAND 75
Harems on the Komandorski Islands 75
Raids of Grunions 79
In Search of a Drier Place 81
IN SEARCH OF FOOD 84
Travels of Herrings 84
Squirrels Besieging Towns 89
Travellers Doomed to Death 93
NOMADS BY NATURE 98
Migrating Vegetarians 98
A Hundred Years on Foot 101
My God! Ants! 104
LONGING FOR FRESH WATER 112
Riverbound Sea Fish 112
Life in Rivers 115 Life in the S e a 120
Anadromes and Catadromes 122
NOSTALGIC EELS 126
“Born of the Sea Abyss” 126
Ichthyologic Epopee 132
Sial and Sima 138
Wandering Continents 142
MIGRATIONS OF INSECTS 147
The First Evidence 147
The Monarchs Conquer New Lands 149
A Mirror for a Gift 151
Where Dragonflies Appear Hens Stop Laying Eggs 158
Ladybirds Do Not Stay at Home Either 161
Chasing Locusts 165
The Eighth Plague of Egypt 169
Cannons Versus Locusts 175
THEY CAME WITH MAN 178
The Death of an Immigrant 178
Triumphant Conquests by Phylloxera and Chinese Crabs 180
The Breath-Taking Career of the Colorado Beetle 184
Exception in Europe, Rule in America 189
Harmful Results ofUseful Experiments 191
A Snail May Not Be so Slow as It Looks 195
How Large is the Sparrow World? 198
Goats Devour Forests 201
Inverse Connection 205 Welcome Guests 208
LIFE RETURNS TO KRAKATAO 214 TRAILS OF SCENT 224
Planaria Takes a Smell 224
Road Signs of Odour 227
Highways in the Sea 232
CHILDREN OF MNEMOSYNE 235
Insect Tinners 235
The Bee Wolf and Others 237
THE WIND-FRIEND AND FOE 243
Gregarious Instinct and Its Helpers 243
The Sense of Direction 246
Locusts and Rain Come Together 250
Driven Off Course by Water Currents 254
CHILDREN OF THE SUN 259
Mnemosyne Again 259
Dances on Honeycombs 263
Pigeon Post 270
Is It Memory Again? 273
Is It a Spiral Search? 275
Do the Veterans Show the Way ? 278
Aren’t They Guided by the Magnetic Field and the Coriolis Forces? 281
Kramer’s Experiments 284 The Physiological Clock 288
Sun Navigation 295 Who Else Is Guided by the Sun? 300
Also by the Sun? 304
RADARS AND THERMOLOCATORS 309
The Radar of Mormyrus 309 Can We See Heat ? 315
Thermolocators of Snakes 317
LOCATING BY SOUND 323
What Was the Priest Doing on the Belfry? 323
Sound Ranging 328
Types of Nature’s Sonars 332
Bats May Err, Too 337
Voices from the Abyss 339
Omnipresent Ultrasound 342
Gyrinids Don’t Whirl for Nothing 346
PROMETHEUS’ SECOND TORCH 349
AFTERWORD 352
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