Supernavigators

Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their Way

By: David Barrie

Narrated by: David Barrie

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A globetrotting voyage of discovery celebrating the navigational superpowers of animals - by land, sea, and sky

Animals plainly know where they're going, but how they get there has remained surprisingly mysterious - until now.

In Supernavigators, award-winning author David Barrie catches us up on the cutting-edge science. Here are astounding animals of every stripe: Dung beetles that steer by the light of the Milky Way. Ants and bees that rely on patterns of light invisible to humans. Sea turtles and moths that find their way using Earth's magnetic field. Humpback whales that swim thousands of miles while holding a rock-steady course. Birds that can locate their nests on a tiny island after crisscrossing an ocean.

The age of viewing animals as unthinking drones is over. As Supernavigators makes clear, a stunning array of species command senses, skills - and arguably, types of intelligence - beyond our own. Weaving together interviews with leading animal behaviorists and the groundbreaking discoveries of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, David Barrie reveals these wonders in a whole new light.

©2019 David Barrie (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Interesting Stuff

This was around a 3.5 for me. While the information was well researched and interesting, parts of it felt repetitive. I would have enjoyed more information on various mammals, rather than most of the focus on birds, reptiles, insects and fish (although I understand the focus, as that is the author's areas of interest). The author makes two powerful points at the end: if we don't use our navigational skills and stop paying attention solely to GPS, we will lose that skill; and we are affecting the habitats and navigational abilities of many species due to our behavior towards the earth.

Could have been better!

Very interesting topics. Narration could have been better if narrator speed up and put more effort in it, so that it wouldn't sound like he is bored doing it.

A detailed description of natural phenomena

At first, the recto-tono voice of the reader I perceived to be monotonous. Then I realized it was the perfect tone of voice to transmit the detailed, subtle information of the navigational descriptions of that art. Thank you for a mind opening book kit

Entertaining science!

It was great to learn about the different types of "GPS" our fellow creatures use. It spiked my curiosity, and it made more aware of how we affect nature as well.

Lip Smacking Narrator

I couldn't finish the audio version due to the narrators lip-smacking, swallowing and constant throat noises. Interesting subject matter though.

Hard to follow.

I had to turn the speed up to 1.65 in order to track with the narrator. His cadence is so slow it was nearly impossible to hold my attention.

Very scientific

I enjoyed it and it’s definitely a read for anyone interested in science. If not, it might not interest you.

Fascinating

It's like your grandfather sits you down to tell you a story and it turns out he's a friggin genius! And for that you ignore the weird noises he makes with his mouth and you take it all in. Fascinating information with some great connections to our modern lives.

A lot of science explained well to us laymen

There is a factual topic here which one might consider dry or boring but it is NOT! I I do, however, recommend listening to it for 2 reasons: it is way too well written and explain to snooze out and miss much of it; and listening to the author read it helps you get the info in the way she intended. For example, there was 1 simple sentence which I would have just read over when in reality, it was a super cute joke

I truly enjoyed this. Hope all you do too.

VERY VERY SLOW

This book may have been very valuable to listen to, but the narrator/author read it so slowly that it became boring and I couldn’t listen to the whole book. Sad because I wanted to listen.