Recently, researchers in Israel have done an experiment and found that goldfish are able to navigate(导航) on land after receiving around 10 driving lessons.
The experiment was performed by a research team at the Ben-Gurion University. It was made to see whether goldfish could find their way in a very different environment. Researchers developed a robotic car that could drive forward, backward and from side to side. They called the car FOV—"Fish Operated Vehicle"(鱼驱动车). A goldfish was placed inside a water box on the FOV. Using a set of wheels with a camera system, the FOV recorded the fish's movements and swimming directions, and then moved in the same direction.
The scientists worked with six different goldfish. They placed the car in a small room with a pink target(目标) on one side. The fish would get food when the car touched the target. After a few days of training, the fish navigated to the target. At first, it took them about half an hour to drive to the target. But by the end of the experiment, they were able to complete the same task in less than a minute. Shachar Givon, one of the researchers, said, "As anyone who has tried to learn how to ride a bike or to drive a car knows, it is challenging at first."
Not only did the goldfish show that they could drive to the target, but they also weren't fooled by false targets of other colors. They were also able to get free when the car hit a wall. Although the fish may not have realized they were moving on land, these results show that a fish has the ability to navigate outside its nature environment of water. It can enrich scientific knowledge of animals' navigation skills.
