[Rockhounds] Cows point north thanks to magnetite crystals

[J Bryan Kramer]

I don't know if you fellows read the same article, but the one I read said
that

1) They did all this from aerial shots and couldn't tell which end was
facing north, only that the critters were aligned north-south

2) They know about the wind alignment affect and controlled for that.

3) They were finding about 60% of the cows aligned n-s which is higher than
random but not overwhelmingly so

I did not see anything that gave what heading variation they considered to
to qualify the critters for n-s alignment. My first thought was that the
critters may be aligning themselves perpendicular to the sun which would
roughly align them n-s.

BK

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 11:34 PM, Glenn Wimpee <pawpawtiger at hotmail.com>wrote:

> I think more study is needed over a broader sample of bovines.
>
> IMHO most grazers feed facing into the wind. This keeps the methane away
> from their olfactory end.
> Glenn
>
>
>
>  EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOODJoin me
>
> > From: DrkHorse42 at aol.com> Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:31:17 -0400>
> Subject: [Rockhounds] Cows point north thanks to magnetite crystals> _
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2623809/Cows-point-north-thanks-to-in-built-compasses.htmlTelegraph_ (
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2623809/Cows-point-north-thanks-to-in-built-compasses.html
> )
>
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-- 
--

"The thunderbolt falls on an inch of ground; but the light of it fills the
horizon."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

J Bryan Kramer
North Florida, USA
photos at:
http://pbase.com/photoburner


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