Scientists Discover Cows Point North 558
Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen have discovered that cows tend to point north. The researchers studied deer in the Czech Republic and looked at thousands of images of cattle on Google Earth. The animals tended to face north when eating or resting. "We conclude that the magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the observed alignment," the scientists wrote in an article. I guess cows will become the must-have item for long-distance hikers now. Having an edible compass would come in handy if you get lost.
Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:1, Informative)
> In 2005 Indiana University released a complete set of aerial photos of the whole state that had as high as 6" per pixel resolution. Which is better than Google Earth.
No it's not. Google uses that data where it's available (look at the image credits) http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=40.216869,-86.131615&spn=0.000822,0.001086&z=20 [google.com]
better article (Score:5, Informative)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7575459.stm [bbc.co.uk]
This one also states that the herd orientation is different around the South Atlantic Anomaly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Atlantic_Anomaly [wikipedia.org]
Probably due to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetite [wikipedia.org]
And can't forget us.. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=49775 [nih.gov]
Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:5, Informative)
Huge variations in the wind direction and sunlight in the areas where the beasts were found meant that the scientists were able to rule out those factors as being responsible for the direction they were facing.
Thanks for playing our game! Please accept this consolation prize - RTFA: The Home Game! Now you can play RTFA right from the comfort of your own television set!
Re:Thanks, Slashdot! (Score:5, Informative)
The picture is actually related to the article, since the cow has a map of Earth on her side, with North at her top!
Re:Where does Gary Larson Live? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:2, Informative)
Turtles. At least that's the store in Hawkings 'A Brief History of Time'.
Re:Time-averaged sunlight (Score:4, Informative)
I found the press release by the university (press release (in German) is here [uni-duisburg-essen.de]) and it contains a bit more information. They also checked areas with known deviations of the magnetic field and found, that the cows seem to react stronger to the magnetic north than the geographic north.
Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:4, Informative)
In America, if an adult cow is grazing, it's almost certainly a dairy cow. Steers are shipped to feedlots early in life to be corn-fed (cows still can't really digest corn well, and it would kill them in about a year and a half, but they're slaughtered first).
Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_magnet [wikipedia.org]
And where do beef steers come from, hmmm?? (Score:4, Informative)
Someone says, "In America, if an adult cow is grazing, it's almost certainly a dairy cow."
Not true. The dams of all those steers being shipped to market are ranch cows, which you'll find grazing on the open range. Second, most dairies feed largely silage and baled hay, since milk-producing cows need more protein than range graze provides.
Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:3, Informative)
And the new calves can freeze mainly because (like all mammals) they're born wet, and thanks to the chinooks the ground can also be wet. Once they've dried off and are standing and drinking good, they can go back outside. As you say, cattle are VERY hardy. (Being close cousins of bison, who thrive in the coldest parts of the continent, often calve in late winter, and are outdoors for the duration.)
BTW where 'zactly are you? I grew up in Montana (Great Falls), tho I'm presently in SoCal.
Re:You too can be an armchair scientist. (Score:1, Informative)
If you look at the Abstract of the published article in PNAS http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/22/0803650105.abstract
The did consider light and wind conditions
Journal article (Score:3, Informative)
The journal article is here [pnas.org]. The abstract gives some details:
"We demonstrate by means of simple, noninvasive methods (analysis of satellite images, field observations, and measuring âoedeer bedsâ in snow) that domestic cattle (n = 8,510 in 308 pastures) across the globe, and grazing and resting red and roe deer (n = 2,974 at 241 localities), align their body axes in roughly a northâ"south direction. Direct observations of roe deer revealed that animals orient their heads northward when grazing or resting. Amazingly, this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters. Because wind and light conditions could be excluded as a common denominator determining the body axis orientation, magnetic alignment is the most parsimonious explanation. 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. Our findings open horizons for the study of magnetoreception in general and are of potential significance for applied ethology (husbandry, animal welfare). They challenge neuroscientists and biophysics to explain the proximate mechanisms."
Not correct. (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry - these guys should have spoken to some paraglider or hang glider pilots before their study. What they would have been told is that at wind speeds exceeding about 5 knots at ground level, cows and horses put their tails into the wind, and keep their heads downwind.
I have used cow-filled paddocks as excellent wind socks on numerous occasions: if cows are NOT aligned in any particular direction, then I know winds are lighter than 5 knots, and I look for other tell-tales of wind direction (smoke, or dust mainly).
At over 5 knots though, cows are extremely reliable, and I have never suffered a downwind landing after checking the cow-orientation of a nearby field.