Taking shortcuts in the study of cognitive maps.

Harten, Katz, Goldshtein, Handel, and Yovel (Science, 369, 194-197, 2020) tracked fruit bats from their first flight and demonstrate that they can perform novel shortcuts both within and from outside their home ranges, fulfilling an important criterion of a cognitive map. Their richly detailed data set could be used to explore more key aspects of spatial cognition.