# How do animals find their way home? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 28, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389 "2021-10-28T14:18:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/1 "2021-10-28T14:18:53Z")
In [this MPSIMS thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fly-mouse-be-free/953254) about mice, we have the following claim: > [@Fly, mouse, be free!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fly-mouse-be-free/953254/50): > > Dumping mice outside, even quite a distance away, just slightly delays them running right back to your house. They are as good at getting back to their base as homing pigeons, within the limits of their little legs. This has been verified by wildlife biologists. Mice have returned within a day or so at distances as great as several miles. I’m willing to believe that this is true, but my real question is how do they do it? I can imagine an animal like a deer or a bear, or even a squirrel ranging far and wide, and knowing ‘their territory’ well enough to get wherever they want to go within that range. They know the place, or travelled under their own power to a new place, so they know how to get back. But the claim is that you can take a mouse or other small animal (I’ve also heard the same about groundhogs), put them in a box (a trap/cage), then in another box (a car or truck) drive them ‘several’ miles away, at unheard of speeds (for a mouse) and when let go, they will have a sense of what direction ‘home’ is. I don’t see how that’s possible, does my little house in the woods have such a magically unique smell that a mouse can pick it out from 3 miles away, and avoid the other couple hundred houses within that circle? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/2 "2021-10-28T14:55:40Z")
From a very brief scan of popularized science articles – animals and birds use star locations, magnetic fields, sun location, scent (including under water, like migrating salmon), visual landmarks, and other tools, including some we likely do not know anything about, to find their ways. Dogs for example, have any number of documented incidents of traveling over a thousand miles to get back home. We only know about this capacity of dogs because they live with us. Scent, a sense we can barely use for anything, is of enormous importance to most animals other than us. Dogs can smell _molecules_. The capacities of animals other than ourselves is mostly an unknown country to us. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/3 "2021-10-28T16:17:32Z")
And I don’t want to fight the hypothetical, as it were, but let’s admit that for every lost critter that finds their way home, there’s an unknowable number that don’t. So it’s hard to gauge the effectiveness of the homing instinct because we can’t really know anything about all the times it’s ineffective. ---
**Author:** ![SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpacemanSpiff_II)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/4 "2021-10-28T18:13:45Z")
Animal control people have a good sense of this. They have a lot of experience dealing with people trying to get rid of unwanted animals hanging around their houses. If trapping and dropping the critters off several miles away was effective in the vast majority of cases, they would know it; likewise if that’s generally futile. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/5 "2021-10-28T19:54:39Z")
We had several mice living under our house. I humanly trapped them and took them to a park a couple of blocks away (not miles). That was 6 months ago. None of them has made it back yet. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/6 "2021-10-28T20:51:24Z")
The local cats thank you. Burp. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/7 "2021-10-28T20:53:01Z")
If you extend the question to insects, Dung beetles use the Milky way to navigate [Dung Beetles Navigate Poop-Pile Getaways Using Celestial 'Snapshots' : The Two-Way : NPR](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/13/477963290/dung-beetles-navigate-poop-pile-getaways-using-celestial-snapshots#:~:text=More%20Podcasts%20%26%20Shows-,Dung%20Beetles%20Navigate%20Poop%2DPile%20Getaways%20Using%20Celestial%20'Snapshots',store%20them%20in%20their%20brains). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/8 "2021-10-28T21:54:47Z")
Also keep in mind that all mice look the same to us. How could you tell the difference between “I trapped one mouse, took it far away, and that same mouse came back”, and “I had a bunch of mice, but only found one, took it far away, and then found another one of my many mice”? ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/9 "2021-10-28T22:15:55Z")
> [@SpacemanSpiff\_II](#): > > They have a lot of experience dealing with people trying to get rid of unwanted animals hanging around their houses. True. I once lived on a dead-end road 12 miles from the nearest town. A depressing number of people would dump their dogs nearby. As our dog did not take kindly to canine housemates, we were frequent flyers at the Humane Society. I was glad the dogs couldn’t find their way back to such idiotic, cruel owners. Hopefully all the pups found happier homes. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/10 "2021-10-30T02:35:00Z")
True. On the other hand, a mouse making it back to your house after being taken a few kilometres away is trivial compared to something like the godwit. > **[4BBRW the godwit longest flight non-stop](https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/first-up/audio/2018768439/4bbrw-the-godwit-longest-flight-non-stop)** > > A godwit has just recorded the longest ever flight by a land bird, flying non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand. The bird, known as 4BBRW, was tracked from its breeding grounds in Alaska as it flew about 12-thousand kilometres non-stop to New Zealand.... Maybe it’s not the same mouse, but if it is the same mouse, it’s not out-of-this-world amazing or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/11 "2021-10-30T04:35:33Z")
I’m seriously skeptical that a bird flew 12 megameters non-stop. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/12 "2021-10-30T04:43:25Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Dogs for example, have any number of documented incidents of traveling over a thousand miles to get back home. We only know about this capacity of dogs because they live with us. I remember as a kid reading a “New of the World” article in _Mad Magazine_ telling of a family from Seattle on a road trip losing their dog at a rest stop in Kansas. “Six months later it showed up on Orlando, still walking the wrong way.” ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/13 "2021-10-30T04:54:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I’m seriously skeptical that a bird flew 12 megameters non-stop. Astoundingly, it seems the evidence it did is pretty sound. The birds carry a tiny tracker, and the track is pretty unambiguous. This article from the Guardian is about the best I could easily find. There are a lot of sites quoting one another delivering the same news. > **['Jet fighter' godwit breaks world record for non-stop bird flight](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/13/jet-fighter-godwit-breaks-world-record-for-non-stop-bird-flight)** > > Bar-tailed godwit flies more than 12,000km from Alaska to New Zealand in 11 days ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/14 "2021-10-30T06:11:10Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I’m seriously skeptical that a bird flew 12 megameters non-stop. Well it’s not just one bird. The godwits make an annual migration between Alaska and New Zealand. It happens that 4BBRW has recorded the longest flight, but they all do long flights. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/15 "2021-10-30T06:29:43Z")
I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to the migration of the godwit. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/16 "2021-10-30T09:30:21Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I remember as a kid reading a “New of the World” article in _Mad Magazine_ telling of a family from Seattle on a road trip losing their dog at a rest stop in Kansas. “Six months later it showed up on Orlando, still walking the wrong way.” Hey, the world is round, maybe he was attempting a circumnavigation. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/17 "2021-10-30T10:52:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Also keep in mind that all mice look the same to us. A friend of mine kept trapping a mouse that looked like the same mouse. He’d release it quite some distance out into the woods and it kept coming back. To see if it really was the same mouse, he put a dot of his wife’s nail polish on the mouse’s forehead. When the mouse got trapped again, it had the dot on its forehead. He then took the mouse about 20 miles away and released it. It never came back. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2021, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/18 "2021-10-30T11:32:25Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to the migration of the godwit. I see what you did there. > **[A quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/14434-space-is-big-you-just-won-t-believe-how-vastly-hugely)** > > Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's,... ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2021, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-animals-find-their-way-home/953389/19 "2021-11-01T23:27:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Also keep in mind that all mice look the same to us. How could you tell the difference between “I trapped one mouse, took it far away, and that same mouse came back”, and “I had a bunch of mice, but only found one, took it far away, and then found another one of my many mice”? Well, I took several away - now I’m mouse free. So I know they didn’t make it back.