High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Magnetoception (or magnetoreception) is the ability to detect a magnetic field to perceive direction, altitude or location. This sense plays a role in the navigational abilities of several animal species and has been postulated as a method for animals to develop regional maps. Magnetoception is most commonly observed in birds, where sensing of the Earth's magnetic field is important to the navigational abilities during migration; it has also been observed in many other animals including fruit flies, honeybees, turtles, bacteria, fungi, lobsters, sharks and stingrays..