Thecowsaround the world are routinely oriented toeat and sleep in a north-south direction. The behavior reveals a hitherto unknown“magnetic sense”in cattle, say researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany).
Researcher Sabine Begall and her team discovered the phenomenon fromsatellite photos taken from Google Earth. The scientists studied the behavior of8,510 cattle in 308 grazing fieldsall over the world (Latin America, North America, Russia, Asia and Africa), including the “sacred cows” of India. The results of the research are published today in the scientific journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
For now, the causes of this behavior are completely unknown. One possibility is that the Earth’s magnetic field influences physiological processes in animals, such asmilk production. The option that “bovine magnetism” is an option is also being considered.primitive inheritance of orientationnecessary when these animals were organized in large herds and had to travel long distances to survive.
The magnetic sense had previously been identified inbirds, turtles, various rodents and bats. In their next work Begall and his team will focus on the study of sheep, horses and wild boar. In addition, they have proposed to investigate thecollective behavior of people who attend massive music concerts and camp out in the open.
