Update: Cows Sense, Line up On Earth’s Magnetic Field
A follow up on the original study that suggested that cows align themselves to the magnetic field of the earth based on imagery from Google Earth suggest magnetic fields from power lines may play a role, too.
The new research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,updates last year’s work that indicated the animals’ north-south orientation was in response to the earth’s magnetic fields. The effect was most noticeable near the power lines and diminished at a distance.
——original post 8/26/09————-
Hynek Burda of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and his team determined that cows and deer tend to align along the invisible lines when grazing or sleeping. The original work was aimed at determining if people do so, by looking at camp sites in Google Earth. Instead, they found cows that followed the “rules.” The why and how are not yet known.
- NPR
- Abstract (fee for article) in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences
