By
Helen Briggs, BBC News
Salmon
use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate across the ocean as they return to
their home rivers to breed, research suggests.
Each
year millions of fish make the journey home in one of the toughest migrations
of the animal kingdom.
The
memory of the magnetic field where they first entered the sea helps them find
their way back, say US scientists.
 |
Photo: Science Photo Library
The mating display colours of the sockeye salmon
|
The
data, in Current Biology, provide
the first direct evidence that salmon use geomagnetic cues in migration.
Other
marine animals, including turtles and seals, may also use the same homing
mechanism, say researchers.
Extreme
journey
The
journey of adult sockeye salmon from the northern Pacific Ocean back to the
individual freshwater rivers of their birth is one of the toughest migrations
of all animals.
There
are several theories for how salmon locate their nurseries after spending years
out at sea.
One
hypothesis, known as natal homing, is that salmon use both chemical and
geomagnetic cues to find their way home.
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