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Published online 25 August 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1059
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'Magnetic cows' are visible from space
B-field bovines apparently sense Earth's magnetic field.
Despite thousands of years of coexistence, exploitation and cheese, humanity seems to have missed an intriguing fact about cows: they like to point north. Or possibly south.
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I can assure the author of this article as well as well as the researcher, this is a waste of time. Cows grazing orientation depends on the prevailing wind, they usually face away, since they do not like wind up their wide and moist nostrils (wind increases drying) using their sense of smell to select grass they whish to eat.
Milivoje: If mammals do orient themselves with regard to the wind, it is generally facing it. This allows them to be downwind of danger so they can smell predators before they are seen, thus allowing them to escape. As this article points out, deer do not necessarily align their bodies with the wind. However, if you were to study the animals head position relative to the wind direction you would arrive at a different conclusion.
If the authors suggest that this has something to do with the earth's magnetic field then shouldn't cows in the north and south hemisphere face opposing directions?
The finding is facinating.For so many years we ignore this corelation but what puzzled me is that does the relation really exist.As Ken Lohmann said ,there are many limitations of the study.Maybe it is just a happenstance!
Maybe it's just to determine the same direction. It especially needed to quickly synchronize their response when a predator attacks.
I'm surprised that the authors who discovered the magnetic cow phenomenon addressed in this article haven't addressed, at least in a precursory way, the fact that farmer's feed their cattle actual, oblong magnets as a form of preventative medicine. See the following reference for further info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_magnet
Very interesting article, but in my very humble opinion seems to me that this kind of investigation is distantly of the current human needs.
I am wondering if it could not have something to do with the direction of the sun. Unless you are a sunbathing human, you generally don't like the sun in your eyes. Since the predominant sun position in the nothern hemisphere is South-East to South-West, perhaps they are just avoiding having to stare directly at the sun. Just a thought. Anyway, this reminds me a something that appears to be correlated but is not.
Hi Cameron, I have some experience of observing grazing domesticated cows of north Mediterranean area from my earliest childhood up to (I am sorry to say) very mature adulthood. It is likely that wild or less domesticated animals might face into wind, however grazing cow depends on its large ears (two separated ears are highly directional receptors, nostrils especially at ground level are not) to sense any approaching predator, if any unusual noise is heard, than it would immediately raise its head and react accordingly. Predators like wolves, foxes etc are not stupid either, they always make a detour and approach pray from upwind, I have personally observed dogs and foxes doing precisely that. All the best.
I am surprised that the truth of MCP (Magnetic Cow Phenomenon) took this long to become available. Certainly, as more research into MCP is done, the graduate students performing this highly charged research will be greatly rewarded. A positive hurrah must also be given to the statistical challenges of this study--if the orientation of cattle had been so statistically significant throughout the history of domesticated cattle before now, it certainly would have been noticed by many cattle farmers.
If magnetic sense in cattle does exist, then the explanation may be the need for migration. In the wild, cattle would migrate just like birds do. But do I sense an IgNobel nomination coming up?
You do realize that cows are intentionally fed strong bar magnets that remain in their digestive tract for their entire lives. These magnets are a preventative measure to capture pieces of ferromagnetic scrap the cows often ingest. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_magnet One might suspect that these magnets would tend to overwhelm the earth's field at close (internal) range, so perhaps their physical interaction with the cow's reticulum functions as the actual sensor here rather than some evolved cellular-level mechanism.
i do often read many naysayers to the magnetic orientation question. lobsters appear to do it, birds apparently use this and landmarks to travel. there is also some evidence our ancestors had a higher level of maghmetite or some such in the nose. if so we lost the ability long ago. as far as whether they point north or south is idea of aligning themselves along or with the magnetic field lines. whether true or not i do not know. beyond the realm of possibilities, i think not. there is much evidence for interconnectedness on different levels to varying degrees. i do not have all the answers but respect those that seek them.
Sorry to be a wet blanket but most Google Earth pictures are taken with high sun angle on clear days. That is near noon on sunny days. Large animals need to keep their heat gain down at these times and the simplest metheod for that is to point into or away from the sun hence they will naturally have a north south direction. No Magnets needed. Yes on windy days they tend to oritnt in the wind direction - usually head away if it is very cold or wet. jt
When some scientist will lead a cow to the laboratory and in there, without wind or sunlight, will verify if the beast has or not the alleged magnetic orientation? The present study gives us wondrousness, but leave too distrust. We merit more than that. Give us certitudes Mrs. Scientists. We desire avidly for the novelties from science. You that do research steps ahead and give us consumers of science news one definitive answer for that question: Cows has or not magnetic orientation?
The magnetic alignment discovered in this study is in accordance with the way an animal perceives and responds to the intense UV radiation that it’s exposed to during the day. If examine the way an animal responds to UV radiation through the eye, one would realize that the common way for the cow to minimize this intense radiation, is to align themselves in the north-south or south-north manner. Thus, lower the threshold radiation experienced and discomfort in the eye. It’s a natural phenomenon that pasturing animals have acclimatized to in order to reduce damage in the eye of the animal.
I have heard many Qigong practitioners face north or south to align with the magnetic field
Clearly we need some lab-based experiments: double-blind, controlled lab tests with magnetic fields etc. Perhaps the same scientists who brought us the 'men who stare at goats' research programme could do it... PS The most fascinating thing in this thread is that cows eat bar magnets... who knew?
Weak signals of non-thermal intensity were shown to be processed by previously unknown functional mechanisms that express non-local properties. In recently published article (Marina Shaduri.Principle of holography in complex adaptive systems.Kybernetes 2008 Volume: 37 Issue: 6 Page: 732 - 738 ISSN: 0368-492X) as well as in older papers of the same author one can find some answers about "how and why"
The influence of wind is certainly predominant for cows. While flying, hang gliders and paragliders commonly look at cows to evaluate wind direction at ground level. So if unable to modify magnetic fields to test their hypothesis, the authors could also look at landing gliders and airplanes to define wind direction near cows: they always face wind!
Where is the IgNobel committee when one needs them???
I am a curious person and find this interesting BUT when seeing this type of research (somebody or a team spent alot of time looking at satellite images on the internet) ARE THEY BEING PAID TO DO THIS? And who or whose government pays for this? MY TAXDOLLARS? Is this how we (society) are utilizing our PHD's? Next time I am lost in the country I will try to spot a bovine to get my bearings.
Animals do have a sense of direction and their obsession with the Earth's magnetic field is no surprise. We must realize evolution has occured in prsence of EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD.
I wonder if cow magnets have anything to do with this phenomenon.... e.g. http://www.magnetsource.com/Solutions_Pages/cowmags.html
There is an almost endless number of claims, (published in many serious scientific journals), to the effect that various sub-human animals can use the earth's magnetic field to orient and navigate. All these claims are pure science-fiction, based on shoddy research, done by self-deluding, phantom-chasing scientists. The only living organisms able to use the earth's magnetic field to orient and navigate are humans, and humans can do it only provided they fashion, purchase, borrow, or steal, a magnetic compass! The "magnetic compass" (MP) hypothesis for sub-human animals is the second worst goof in the history of science, following the honeybee "dance language" (DL) hypothesis, which holds first place, because its "discovery" had even been crowned with a Nobel Prize in 1973.
Magnetically-oriented cows do indeed sound ‘goofy’… since I can think of no theoretical foundation on which to support the researchers’ finding. But absence of theory is no defense against an empirical fact... I always hearken back to John Snow's correct identification of the Cholera transmission prior to the discovery of the bacterium. So using a little leap of faith that the goofy findings may be 'pointing' in the right direction, can I suggest we at least consider ourselves more modestly... in our media-swamped world (filled with cell-phones stuck to our brain), perhaps we have failed to see that we too are magnetically oriented to the west... perhaps we too are quantum-ly oriented to order... perhaps we too are psychic-ly oriented to transcend this mortal coil. If not, at least we know our ‘dance language’ is the real thing.
It was mentioned in an above comment that the honeybee "dance language" hypothesis, is untrue. I am not disputing this but am curious for more details. Is there new information on how bees communicate? Are there publications? I would love some information if anyone has any. Thanks
The Fundamentals of Vaastu, an age-old Indian science, recommends that the best position for sleeping is with the top of your head pointing to the South and feet pointing North (Brings health, industriousness and increased longevity). The opposite direction is said to bring disturbed sleep/ dream, irritability, frustration and emotional instability. So if humans, the most highly evolved mammal can have a magnetic sense what's so hard to believe in cows? Indian Vaastu already had this knowledge thousands of years before this "Novel" publication. If the author or researchers are reading this Comment, Please research into Vaastu and the Human Magnetic sense. Perhaps you can study 1000s of sleep-deprived individuals and statistically determine correlations of how many sleep in a North-South orientation!Good Luck! Dr. Savi Sidhu
How could the authors discriminate, from the outer space, between the healthy cows and those affected by -let us say- Mad Cow's disease? Simple observation without further study of -or physical access to- the sample may lead to unexpected bias. The conclusions of the study are too good to feel sorry for hundreds of sailors who got lost at sea during centuries because they did not have a cow on board.
A response posted on behalf of the authors of the study: We never expected such a resonance to our recent PNAS-article and are completely overwhelmed. Unfortunately, most people discussing, commenting, criticizing our study did not read the original paper and base their comments only on the second-hand reports by diverse media. Do the scientifically educated readers really believe that a renowned journal like PNAS would accept a study for publication, which is not scientifically sound and where the apparent alternative explanations (wind, sun, etc.) were not considered? Please, read first the original paper and then discuss. There are many misunderstandings: Misunderstanding # 1: Authors base their study only on satellite images of cows. This is not the whole story ? we directly observed also almost 3,000 roe and red deer and deer beds in the wild. Unfortunately, media and people seem to ignore this piece of evidence. It is naïve to claim that researchers who were able to spot hundreds of deer beds and observe and record behaviour of hundreds of wild deer in the course of few months are inexperienced theoreticians who know animals and animal behaviour only from books and PC. Misunderstanding #2: Readers seem to overlook that we talk about ?magnetic alignment? ?Magnetic alignment is a spontaneous behavioural expression of magnetoreception that appears particularly in resting animals when body orientation is not controlled by other factors? (Wiltschko and Wiltschko 1995). Hence we do not negate the role of other factors like sun, wind, slope, etc. What we say is that in absence of the effect of these other factors, cattle and deer align according to the magnetic field. Misunderstanding #3: Cattle (always) point to North We never said that cows were pointing north, but that they tend to align their body axes in roughly a north-south direction (i.e. N-S is overrepresented, E-W is underrepresented). We neither said that ALL cows are N-S oriented. We guessed that about 60-70% of the cows in our data set are oriented appr. N-S (+-30°), but if you analyze big data sets you obtain the highly significant deviations from a random distribution. Misunderstanding #4: The authors did not account for herding behaviour We also kept herding in mind and in order to obtain statistically independent data, we took only one mean value per herd into account. Misunderstanding #5: The authors should interpret their data with respect to sun. Cows might avoid dazzling, or gain heat by standing perpendicular to the sun. Of course, we considered the sun as a factor influencing cattle alignment. If cows were oriented with respect to the sun, they should change their position accordingly during the day. This was not the case. We plotted data relative to the sun (as indicated by shadow directions), which resulted in a random distribution. (I.e. there were not only ?noon-images? in our sample.) We found no correlation between the direction of shades and body orientation of cows. The effect of avoiding sun in eyes (many people argue that in order to avoid predators) is overestimated ? cows and deer do not look on sky (they have no aerial predators) ? grazing and resting cows have their heads lower than drivers in cars ? yet does it imply that on sunny summer holidays we have to drive our cars only northwards? Note also that the real danger from potential predators (wolves, lynxes) does not usually come on midday (and predators would not come only from the northern direction). And we observed also cows which look into the low evening sun ? without any problems, whereas drivers had to slow down. Again, remember our deer data: (here we could use the time at which the data had been collected). We observed deer also during nights (by means of night vision device) and on cloudy days. The deer beds were made in the night. Misunderstanding #6: The authors claim that the magnetic sense is more important than wind. This is not true. We discussed the factor wind in detail in our paper: ??cattle orient parallel with strong winds during winter, which minimizes the area exposed to convective heat loss associated with wind??. It seemed very unlikely that there were windy conditions on all pastures that we found at different localities all over the world by using Google Earth. ?The wind factor can be excluded also for alignment of resting deer, because deer search for wind-protected places deep in the forests to rest (and even if it is windy, the wind in the forest is dampened and changes its direction locally and unpredictably).? We recorded wind conditions when observing grazing and resting deer and could thus show that this factor was less important. The wind as a vehicle of information has little influence upon body alignment in deer ? they are aligned in a certain direction but turn their heads to sense. Regarding Google Earth: are these images a reliable resource for research? Yes, why not? The images "freeze" a certain situation - it is then just the question of the sample size and statistics procedures to find out whether the collected "frozen" situations have a random character or not. Principally, this is what ethologists call scan sampling. The images are objective and everybody can prove them and will get the same results. People who claim that there are no usable images just do not have enough experience or enough patience to search in Google Earth. Regarding magnetic declination: For the cattle study we used the fact that some localities have high values in magnetic declination (i.e. the difference between magnetic North and geographic North). Depending on whether magnetic North is located west or east of geographic North the values are positive or negative. For example the declination is positive at the west coast of the USA, at the East coast it is negative. So, we just had to search for pastures on Google Earth at these localities to find that cows orient on average significantly different at localities with high positive and negative declination values (and that it is magnetic North that better predicts their alignment behavior than geographic North). Regarding ?cow ? magnets? and the idea that they would align in the cow?s stomach Note that this practice is not common (mostly also unknown) in most countries where we made recordings. For sure, none of the deer we observed had it in its stomach. Do the people really think that a small piece of magnet (which does not freely align on a table) would freely align like a magnetic needle in a full stomach? And if so would the cow perceive its movements? Regarding the claim that cattle are not migrating animals and therefore do not need magnet compass sense. First, homing pigeons, newts, mole-rats, termites or honey bees are not migrating either, yet there is good evidence that they have a magnet compass orientation. Secondly, also non-migrating humans can get lost in a prairie without landmarks or in a dense forest or in mountains, and would find a compass a useful device. And the home ranges of most bovids and cervids are quite large. Note also that many are also active at night. Farmers in the Alps or Carpathian Mts., where the cows can still freely move on alpine meadows, would confirm perfect homing abilities of their cows. (And note that we, human use compass in most cases for homing, not for migration). Any further questions? Please feel free to contact us. Hynek Burda, Sabine Begall, Jaroslav Cerveny, Julia Neef, Oldrich Vojtech
The authors' response here is more informative than the news itself. Yes, studying is much more difficult and time consuming whereas commenting is easy. But, people sometimes may forget to be responsible while commenting? By the way, something similar may be true for humans? I have heard of Vastu Shastra (ancient indican science on building construction and on directions) which suggests to point our head in a particular direction while sleeping. After reading this news, it seems more interesting and may be, such ancient knowledge is really useful for better health of humans, I wonder.