The Homing Instinct

<strong>A captivating exploration of the homing instinct in animals and what it means for human happiness and survival from the celebrated naturalist and author of <em>Mind of the Raven Why We Run </em> and <em>Life Everlasting.<br/><br/></em></strong>Acclaimed scientist and author Bernd Heinrich has returned every year since boyhood to a beloved patch of western Maine woods. What is the biology in humans of this deep-in-the-bones pull toward a particular place and how is it related to animal homing?<br/><br/>Heinrich explores the fascinating science chipping away at the mysteries of animal migration: how geese imprint true visual landscape memory; how scent trails are used by many creatures from fish to insects to amphibians to pinpoint their home if they are displaced from it; and how the tiniest of songbirds are equipped for solar and magnetic orienteering over vast distances. Most movingly Heinrich chronicles the spring return of a pair of sandhill cranes to their home pond in the Alaska tundra. <br/><br/>With his trademark marvelous mind-altering prose (<em>Los Angeles</em> <em>Times</em>) he portrays the unmistakable signs of deep psychological emotion in the newly arrived birds--and reminds us that to discount our own emotions toward home is to ignore biology itself.