Laboratory Experiments on the Orientation of the Adult American Eel, Anguilla rostrata

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Abstract
Adult American eels, Anguilla rostrata, caught on their spawning migration downriver, were filmed while in a circular tank, and the orientation of the eels was analysed by determining the direction of alignment of each eel in each frame of the time-lapse film. When allowed a view only of the sky, the eels oriented southward, in the direction of their supposed breeding area in the region of the Sargasso Sea. This southward orientation continued even if the eels were denied a view of the sky, provided they were subject to the diel rhythm of light–dark. Thus the eel seems capable of noncelestial orientation; the physical basis of this is not known.