There are instances in the animal kingdom of animals aligning their bodies with the Earth’s magnetic field during certain activities, but dogs being walking poo-compasses is our favorite example by far. Yes, scientists in Prague have discovered that dogs align their bodies north to south along Earth’s magnetic field while they do their business.
According to a paper recently published in Frontiers in Zoology, the knowledge that dogs perform this alignment itself is more scientifically useful than what the zen-poo-masters (dogs, of course) have to teach us about proper excretion technique. The study finally proved that mammals could exhibit a predictable response to a magnetic field, which will open the door for science to understand how magnetic fields affect us biologically.
Wait! Don’t throw out your compass just yet. The Earth’s magnetic field is only calm enough to illicit the predictable body alignment for about 20% of daylight hours, which is why previous studies had such a hard time proving any reliable correlation at all.
The rest of the time, your dog is just facing random directions and you’re a crazy person following a pooping dog around, which probably isn’t that much different from any regular walk with your dog.
Anyway, we’re going to go collect some data on dogs and see if we can register magneticallyalignedtoilets.plumbing. Geomagnetically optimal bathroom design for everyone!
(via Gizmodo, image via Mark Scott)
- Dogs also sniff out poo for science, which further proves their expertise
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