E.G. Franz Sauer
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Edgar Gustav (E.G.) Franz Sauer | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 4, 1925 |
| Died | 1979 (aged 53–54) |
| Known for | Ornithology |
Edgar Gustav Franz Sauer (September 4, 1925 - 1979), often rendered E.G. Franz Sauer, was a German ornithologist. He and his wife, Eleanor Sauer, experimented in the 1950s on warblers and how they orient at night. They kept warblers during Zugunruhe in circular cages with a glass bottom and watched the direction they pointed when they tried to fly. They discovered that on starry nights the birds attempted to go towards their appropriate migratory direction, but on cloudy nights they were less active and less precise. This led to the theory that the warblers were trying to migrate using the stars. They tested, and proved, this hypothesis using a homemade planetarium. When the stars in the planetarium disappeared, the birds were disoriented.[1][2]
