Dogs may navigate using earth's magnetic fleld
"The researchers took a close look at 223 scouting run cases, in which the dogs roamed an average of 1.1 kilometers on their return. In 170 of these trips, the dogs stopped before they turned back and ran for about 20 meters along a north-south axis. When the animals did this, they tended to get back to the owner via a more direct route than when they didn’t, the authors report in eLife. “I’m really quite impressed with the data,” Lohmann says...
Miklósi says it would not be surprising to find that dogs can use the magnetic field to navigate—it seems to be an ancient ability—and it might be present in any mammal that traverses large territories. "
On a related note:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/dogs-poop-in-alignment-with-earths-magnetic-field-study-finds
Or, they just have a sense of direction like people do and can find their way back by looking at the landscape. Not every person or animal needs a compass or GPS navigator to find its way.
ReplyDelete'.. ran for about 20 meters' takes on a different meaning when you realise that people outside the USA use the word meter for the measuring device and the word metre for the distance, as in 'the speedometer measured a thousand metres'.
ReplyDeleteTomatoe tomato and all that, but how would the dog carry those 20 odd meters ? ... especially 20 metres.
Could it be that our dogs are just a little bit better than everyone else's?
DeleteI knew I read about that somewhere....
ReplyDelete