A new study published Thursday (May 6) in the journal Cell found that intelligent sharks are able to use the Earth’s magnetic field to determine the direction of their targets and record migration routes.
This internal navigation ability allows the shark to pinpoint the same feeding grounds year after year, even if it is thousands of miles away, The Hill (Washington, D.C.) reported.
Florida State University biologist Bryan Keller, who participated in the study, likened the shark’s ability to “have an ‘internal GPS’ “. While scientists have previously hypothesized that sharks navigate through the Earth’s magnetic field, Keller’s research confirms that hypothesis for the first time.
He told the Business Insider website, “This means that sharks have the ability to remember a specific location and follow the navigation to swim back.”
The Earth’s magnetic field originates from an electrically conductive iron flow near the Earth’s core, about 2,000 miles (3,218.7 kilometers) underground. This magnetic field extends from the Earth’s outer core into the space around the planet.
The direction and intensity of the electromagnetic energy flow varies by location. Some animals, including dogs, birds and whales, can sense these differences to orient themselves and navigate to where they need to go.
In this study, Keller and his team captured 20 hammerhead sharks (Bonnetheads) in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida and placed them in a 10 x 10-foot (about 3.05 meters) tank. The researchers generated a small magnetic field within 3 square feet of the tank and then varied the position and strength of the field to test whether the sharks would try to swim in the direction they thought would lead them back to the Florida coast. As a result, the sharks kept finding the right direction this way.
Keller told the Business Insider website, “In my opinion, this is the best explanation for how sharks are able to successfully navigate during their long-distance migrations.”
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