Since Darwin's On the Origins of Certain Instincts[REF] (quoted above) in 1873, path integration has been shown to be important to navigation in animals including ants, rodents and birds [REF].
Studies by Wehner in the Sahara desert ant (Cataglyphis bicolor) demonstrate effective path integration to determine directional heading (by polarized light or sun position) and to compute distance (by monitoring leg movement or optical flow) [REF].