Tracking smell? Don't just follow your nose

Kolkata: Hunger pangs attack at night. There's a power cut and it’s dark. Do you run-and-scan for food in the most likeliest places or do you follow your nose?

Well, research has revealed the former strategy works best in familiar environments. Research by Urvashi Bhattacharyya and Upinder Bhalla from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS),

Bengaluru, shows that while searching in a familiar area with limited choices, a run-and-scan strategy is more efficient than a tracking strategy.

Bhattacharyya and Bhalla used rats to study how animals choose navigational strategies when presented with an odour signal.

Dogs, rats, insects and even humans are known to adopt a zig-zag path while tracking smells - a strategy known as 'casting'.

Under natural conditions in large, unfamiliar environments, casting is thought to be useful when animals search using smell-based cues.