Animals Aren't So Stupid

Mt Benger Mail, 3 November 1937, Page 4

Animals Aren't So Stupid

STRANGE TALES OF THEIR HOMING INSTINCT

The animal world is full of queer stories, going to show that natural history is sometimes unnatural. Let's consider for a moment the question of the amazing homing instinct of some animals.

It isn’t necessary for many animals to sing, “Show Me the Way to Go Home.” for they already know the answer. Two items of news I have just seen are ample proof of that. The first and most astounding tale is that of a cat, whose home was aboard the Blue Star liner, Stuart Star, and who loved the vessel’s bos’n and usually slept in his cabin.

When the ship was off Cockatoo Island, near Sydney, Miss Pussy went ashore, and when the Stuart Star sailed again she was, alas, minus her cat.

That was on November 22 last, and on January 14 the vessel docked at London. Then came the sensation —on January 20 the cat stepped calmly aboard her old home.

This may sound fantastic to you. How, you will ask, did the cat know which ships were London bound. You may feel inclined to think that there were a couple of cats involved, but the fact is that the cat, on boarding the Stuart Star, immediately went to the cabin of her friend, the bos’n.

The scene of the second incident was America. When the Martin Family moved to Denver they took their dog Max along with them. But Max was unhappy.

Within a week he had left Denver, and arrived at his old home in Des Moines, lowa, 47 days and 750 miles—later. Tired but happy he fell asleep in the back yard of a former neighbour’s home. We arc inevitably forced to the conclusion that animals are possessed of a power which man does not have. There is evidence galore pointing that way. One thing has been ascertained by experiment—that some animals possess a special sense whereby they can detect the presence of water even when they cannot see it. Some years ago experiments were undertaken at the suggestion of an Australian. In a place where the presence of water was wholly unexpected the Australian noticed some curious facts when driving sheep and cattle across country.

The leading animals would suddenly lift their heads and draw long breaths. Then they would abandon the beaten track and start running through the brush. Sometimes they would run from a mile and a-half to two miles and could not be stopped by the drivers, their course invariably leading to a pond or spring previously unknown. These observations prompted experiments to be made in France. In one experiment a water rat was used. First its eyes were blinded by a bandage, and then it was placed on a turntable which was ■whirled round until all sense of direction must have been obliterated. Upon being released it started directly for a pond several hundred yars distant without a moment’s hesitation.

Frogs and toads were taken to a distance of three or four miles from water and then turned loose. It seemed to take them only a few seconds to locate the water. One old blind toad showed the instinct in the same degree as the others.