Space, the original frontier

Abstract

Over fifty years of work on animal cognition, enthusiasms for different topics can wax and wane. Interest in spatial cognition, once popular, has more recently waned. Some of this change, however, is only apparent, as research on spatial cognition continues to evolve and produce new scientific innovations. Indeed, recent technological developments has enabled us to now address questions raised from classic early studies. Here we review several key examples where past and present research approaches have intersected to provide new answers to old questions concerning spatial memory in food-storing birds and other laboratory animals, navigation in birds and insects, and spatial cognition in wild hummingbirds.