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Dogs align north-south when defecating, foxes pounce north-east, and that’s just the start. Where does this magnetic sense come from – and do we have it too?
Early evidence that animals align themselves in a particular direction was dug up more than 50 years ago by entomologist Purushottam Deoras. Called to a farm in a suburb of Mumbai with a severe termite infestation, including several mounds that had erupted inside the farmer’s hut, Deoras searched high and low for the queen – the key to eradicating the infestation. He eventually found her lying with her head pointing north, beneath a smattering of mounds that were orientated east-west. When Deoras looked at other colonies, he spotted that in almost every case, the queen aligned herself in this same direction. …
Every dog owner knows how seriously their pet takes the decision of where to do its business. First it will pace in circles, nose to the ground, searching intently for the perfect spot. Once selected, there are another few turns and a shimmy until, finally, it is ready to commit. If you’ve ever wondered what’s going through a dog’s mind as it does this, the answer could be something like the spinning of a compass needle. Dogs prefer to defecate with their spine aligned in a north-south position, and they use Earth’s magnetic field to help them position themselves.
It has long been suspected that animals such as turtles and birds use magnetoreception to navigate, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that many other animals sense magnetism too, seemingly when they’re doing very little. Insects like to align their bodies along a north-south axis, as do sleeping warthogs, fish in tanks, nesting house mice and foxes on the hunt. So how are they are doing it and, more head-scratchingly, why?
Googling this story results in pages and pages of hits (out of recent news alone, there are nearly 4,000 hits). The vast majority mention “poop” in the headline, because apparently that’s how to get readers (as supported by you reading this article). The study’s outcome regards magnetic sensitivity, but it’s fairly clear that many media outlets regard this as a water cooler story, rather than a serious scientific result. Specialist outlets like ScienceDaily rise above it all, downplaying the activity the dogs were engaged in.
There are signs that animals closely related to the dog, such as wolves, are magnetoceptors. In some cases, the animals are believed to be magnetosensitive simply because of their superior homing range requiring the ability to know where magnetic north is (this line of reasoning concerns me a little, as it seems like an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy). In other cases, there is more substantial evidence that the animals are capable of magnetoception (the red fox being an example).
Scatological jokes aside, the researchers did uncover a link between magnetic fields and dog behaviour. As with all correlations, this does not mean causation – dogs aligning with the magnetic field is evidence for magnetoception, not proof. More study is needed, with larger samples (a total of only 70 dogs were involved in the study, located in the Czech Republic and Germany), and these future studies must be careful as to how they collect their data – for example, the researchers were careful to not count events where nearby structures could provide a template for alignment, such as roads, buildings or power lines.
The Guardian‘s blog is in-depth, and includes figures from the paper as well as linking to the article.
This is important. Dogs will spend a penny almost anywhere, whereas they will tend to rest and feed in the same places, introducing a bias (if the bed aligns North-South, so will the dog). Note here that “excreting” includes defecation, urination and marking their territory. The researchers looked at how dogs behaved in “calm” periods where the magnetic field stayed roughly fixed, and in periods where the magnetic field oscillated and changed. The researchers weren’t actually changing the magnetic field themselves – the Earth’s magnetic field naturally fluctuates for a variety of reasons, for example because charged particles in the ionosphere produce currents, or as a result of solar flares.
Although their altered behaviour was only evident under calm conditions, it’s still a breakthrough in demonstrating measurable, predictable changes in dog behaviour in response to the earth’s magnetic field.
We’ve included a sample of the male dogs behaviour here. It’s impossible to say what was wrong with M07.
Now, a team of 12 scientists from universities in Germany and the Czech Republic have come together in a unique study that observed 37 breeds of dog over a two-year period.
Exactly 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations later, the team reach one incredible finding: “dogs preferred to excrete with the body being aligned along the north–south axis”.
And before you go pointing any fingers, this isn’t made up (although it’s not clear how George Arnett found it online) and you can see some of their findings for yourself here
Dogs poop along magnetic fields, scientists say
There’s been quite a bit of press lately about dogs’ lavatory habits, and how they relate to the magnetic field produced by the Earth. But is it really true that dogs prefer to poop in the direction of the magnetic North and South poles? And if so, why would researchers care?
Unsurprisingly, the researchers were not principally interested in doggy defecation habits. They were looking instead for evidence of magnetoception – simply, the ability of an animal to detect or sense a magnetic field. It’s well known to most that homing pigeons are magnetoceptors, and that they use this ability as we might use a compass when we are finding landmarks on a map. It’s not clear exactly how this sense works – the two main candidates are either the creation of free-radicals from proteins when struck by light, which align with the local magnetic field, or simply the presence of magnetic minerals like magnetite within the animal itself (the interested can read more on this here).
There are signs that animals closely related to the dog, such as wolves, are magnetoceptors. In some cases, the animals are believed to be magnetosensitive simply because of their superior homing range requiring the ability to know where magnetic north is (this line of reasoning concerns me a little, as it seems like an example of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy). In other cases, there is more substantial evidence that the animals are capable of magnetoception (the red fox being an example).
In any case, there is a groundswell of evidence and suggestive behaviour that makes it sensible to wonder if dogs could be magnetosensitive. The researchers attempted to find this out by investigating canine behaviour during a variety of activities (resting, feeding and excreting). From these observations, they believed that excreting
This is important. Dogs will spend a penny almost anywhere, whereas they will tend to rest and feed in the same places, introducing a bias (if the bed aligns North-South, so will the dog). Note here that “excreting” includes defecation, urination and marking their territory. The researchers looked at how dogs behaved in “calm” periods where the magnetic field stayed roughly fixed, and in periods where the magnetic field oscillated and changed. The researchers weren’t actually changing the magnetic field themselves – the Earth’s magnetic field naturally fluctuates for a variety of reasons, for example because charged particles in the ionosphere produce currents, or as a result of solar flares.
When the dogs did their business, the researchers measured the angle they adopted relative to the Earth’s magnetic field, and looked at the average alignment. When the magnetic field was calm, the researchers found the dogs’ typical alignment was very much with magnetic North or South. If the magnetic field fluctuated, then the alignment was less focused towards North/South.
These results are consistent with the dogs being sensitive to the local magnetic field (either on a conscious or unconscious level). One might argue that the reason for the alignment is to avoid being dazzled by the Sun while carrying out an activity that leaves the dog vulnerable to attack. The researchers believe this is not the case, as sometimes danger may come from the Sun’s direction. They also note that the dog’s preference does not change during the day. For some dogs they possessed more than 5 individual samples of behaviour, and over the course of the day the dog maintains its preferred axis, which is not consistent with the dog pointing away from the Sun.
On the other hand, the dog’s magnetoception (if it possesses it) does not appear to be particularly effective in general. When the researchers pooled all the data (calm and not-calm magnetic fields), they saw no evidence of alignment at all, meaning that dogs can only rely on this sense if the magnetic field behaves itself, which only happened during around a third of the researcher’s observations.
It also means that if you own a dog, you are probably unlikely to notice any alignment, unless you’re willing to only note your pup’s pooping practices when you’ve previously measured a stable magnetic field.
Scatological jokes aside, the researchers did uncover a link between magnetic fields and dog behaviour. As with all correlations, this does not mean causation – dogs aligning with the magnetic field is evidence for magnetoception, not proof. More study is needed, with larger samples (a total of only 70 dogs were involved in the study, located in the Czech Republic and Germany), and these future studies must be careful as to how they collect their data – for example, the researchers were careful to not count events where nearby structures could provide a template for alignment, such as roads, buildings or power lines.
Googling this story results in pages and pages of hits (out of recent news alone, there are nearly 4,000 hits). The vast majority mention “poop” in the headline, because apparently that’s how to get readers (as supported by you reading this article). The study’s outcome regards magnetic sensitivity, but it’s fairly clear that many media outlets regard this as a water cooler story, rather than a serious scientific result. Specialist outlets like ScienceDaily rise above it all, downplaying the activity the dogs were engaged in.
Semantics is important here. Reuters state that “dogs use the magnetic field to align their position while defecating”, which implies the mechanism is applied consciously by the dog. The researchers admit they don’t know whether the alignments are conscious or not, and as a result they’re not sure why the dogs align at all.
The Guardian‘s blog is in-depth, and includes figures from the paper as well as linking to the article.
As amusing as the prose is, with my pedant’s hat on I must note that (as I’ve already said) dog owners are unlikely to witness this event. However, they do link to the journal article, and the Facebook comments below the piece are hilarious.