TPO49 task1

the main idea of both the passage and lecture is about the possibility of utilizing stars for navigation in humpback whales that migrate for long-distance. In this respect, the reading passage provides three major explanations. However, the lecture finds all the idea implausible and present some evidence to refute them.
First, the author argues that humpback whales capable of navigating their path via stars owing to their well-developed brain and high-level cognitive ability. On the contrary, the professor highlights the fact that there is no direct correlation between cognitive ability and star navigation. Indeed, other animal species including ducks that have average intelligence harness the sky to determine their path, indicate the mismatch between cognitive skills and navigation. Taken this into consideration, this competency is the innate ability that makes whales navigate their path and have no connection with their brain development.
Secondly, the reading holds the view that the straight line moving of humpback whales reveals that they are influenced by external hints such as stars in the sky in order to migrate for long distances. In contrast, the lecture dismisses the point due to the fact that the earth's magnetic field is the external forces that consider as an external force for animals in terms of navigation in straight lines. In this respect, THe brain plays the role of the biomagnetic device which is sensitive to the earth's magnetic field, enables animals to orient their path according to the magnetic field in comparison to stars.
Finally, the passage asserts that the spy-hopping which is the bizarre action of humpback whales manifest their use of sky for navigation when they observe the sky straight up for minutes with their head above the water. Conversely, the speaker brings up the fact that despite the spy-hopping is rare among animals, it has seen in other marine animals like sharks that exploit this behavior for haunting the prey, not for migration. In addition, sharks act in this way in daylight that there are no stars available in the sky. Thus the explanation of using stars for navigation y humpback whales is just pure speculation.