Cows and deer head north, literally

by William Atkins

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Page 2 of 3 Dr. Begall stated, "At one point last year the question came up whether large animals could also sense the Earth's magnetic field or not. But of course, it is difficult, or maybe impossible, to do these studies in the lab." Begall added, "So, the idea arose to look for other large mammals like cattle, and Hynek Burda was fascinated when he recognized that cattle could be found on Google Earth satellite images." [Fox News: “Study shows cows have innate sense of direction”] The researchers state, “To test the hypothesis that cattle orient their body axes along the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field, we analyzed the body orientation of cattle from localities with high magnetic declination. Here, magnetic north was a better predictor than geographic north. This study reveals the magnetic alignment in large mammals based on statistically sufficient sample sizes.” However, the researchers did not specifically study (experiment) with the animals and the affect that the magnetic field of the Earth might have on their behavior. They instead used correlation measurements to point toward the magnetic field as a likely cause why the animals tend to graze and rest in the north-south position—specifically with their heads in the northward position. In probability theory and statistics, correlation measures the strength and direction of a relationship. In this case, the researchers stated that based on correlation the northward grazing- and resting-direction of a large population of cows around the world indicates that the magnetic field of Earth is a likely cause of such behavior. Could this be applied to human behavior? Please read page three. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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