在中科院知识创新工程重要方向项目“地磁场对生物的影响及其机理”的资助下，中科院动物研究所研究员张树义(目前任华东师范大学教授)、中科院地质与地球物理研究所研究员潘永信和他们共同指导的博士研究生王毅男通过长期研究，发现实验动物山蝠(Nyctalus plancyi)可以利用地球磁场定向。与此同时，美国学者利用小型飞机在空中跟踪实验与对照蝙蝠的办法也发现了蝙蝠利用地球磁场导航。2006年，《自然》杂志报道了美国研究团队的工作，但该项研究未能阐明蝙蝠是利用哪一种磁罗盘；而张树义等人在研究中开展了更进一步的实验，并发现山蝠利用磁极罗盘进行定向，研究成果发表在最新一期《英国皇家学会会刊》(Proceedings of the Royal Society B)上。
地球上的许多动物都可以利用地球磁场来进行定向和迁徙时的导航，这方面的研究也一直吸引着人们的广泛关注。不同动物利用地球磁场信息的策略有很大差别：有些动物利用的是磁极罗盘，即区分地球磁场的南北极；而有些动物则是区分磁倾角的指向，从而分辨出地球磁场的磁赤道和磁极方向。蝙蝠是唯一一类可以真正飞行的哺乳动物，而且相当多的蝙蝠种类可以长距离迁徙，有些种类的迁徙距离可达上千公里。蝙蝠通常用回声定位探测食物和周围的世界，但回声定位的有效距离通常仅为几十米，而有些蝙蝠迁徙时距离地面的高度可达数公里，因此它们在飞行过程中的导航策略一直是个迷。（动物所）
原始出处:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Yinan Wang1, 2, 5, Yongxin Pan2, Stuart Parsons3, Michael Walker3, Shuyi Zhang4
1 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China
2 Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
3 School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
4 School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
5 Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China
摘要
Bats have been shown to use information from the Earth's magnetic field during orientation. However, the mechanism underlying this ability remains unknown. In this study we investigated whether bats possess a polarity- or inclination-based compass that could be used in orientation. We monitored the hanging position of adult Nyctalus plancyi in the laboratory in the presence of an induced magnetic field of twice Earth-strength. When under the influence of a normally aligned induced field the bats showed a significant preference for hanging at the northern end of their roosting basket. When the vertical component of the field was reversed, the bats remained at the northern end of the basket. However, when the horizontal component of the field was reversed, the bats changed their positions and hung at the southern end of the basket. Based on these results, we conclude that N. plancyi, unlike all other non-mammalian vertebrates tested to date, uses a polarity-based compass during orientation in the roost, and that the same compass is also likely to underlie bats' long-distance navigation abilities.
Keywords
Nyctalus plancyi, orientation, polarity compass, hanging position
