In the past week or so I have heard on the radio three broadcasters reporting that scientists after examining thousands of photos taken from space of cows in pastures around the world have noted that they invariably line up facing either north or south. The scientists have concluded that cows must have some internal magnetism detector which allows them to do this although the scientists don’t know why they do it. Isn’t a much more simple and obvious explanation for the north-south orientation the fact that the cows don’t want to stand with the sun in their eyes, hence they start out avoiding facing east in the morning and west in the evening and gradually just face north and south most of the time?
I heard a story about this on the radio recently. In order to investigate a reporter went to a farm and he and the farmer went out to a field of cows. The cows were facing every which way and the farmer reckoned that’s what they always do and that the “study” was a crock.
Just anecdotal, of course.
I have seen cows looking mostly in all directions (not at once though as they lack multifaceted eyes like flies have). I mean, if a cow wants to walk (or trot, or gallop) with a direction of 067º does it go sideways? Like a crab? I am afraid I have never seen cows going sideways, like crabs.
Do cows in stables do the same?
Also, on satelite photos you do not have a good enough resolution to really tell a cow’s geographical orientation with any accuracy.
I am afraid I am going to have to ask for some evidence which supports the premise since I find it unconvincing.
For anyone who’s interested, I believe this: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/22/0803650105.abstract is the original article (full text behind pay wall.)
I haven’t read the whole thing yet - just the abstract, so I don’t feel ready to comment on whether I believe it or not.
A cow facing north is going to have a good bit of sun in its right eye in the morning and its left eye in the evening. Google up some cow pictures and pay attention to where their eyes are located. Even with a human eye layout, you’d still get some glare – the sun theory would make more sense if they faced west in the morning and east in the evening.
I don’t imagine the scientists did anything as hasty as concluding. They may have suggested. The section of the report may have been titled conclusions, but I’m sure they only suggested.
It’s interesting to see that the DJs are lagging behind the newspapers and websites. It’s been a couple of weeks since this item was there. It’s almost like watching the information flow. For a given value of information.
Not “invariably”, no. The study found that about they do so about two-thirds of the time.
Maybe they just like having the rising or setting sun to warm their bodies? (They are standing broadside to the sun, right?)
Another anecdote: I have a photo (I’ll try to find it) I took on Maui. I was photographing some cactus flowers, and happened to notice a herd of cattle not far from me. All the cows’ bodies were aligned either north or south, and they were all looking westward, toward me, though I hadn’t done anything to startle them. I took their picture, because it was neat, the way they were all looking in my direction. Until now, I hadn’t thought about their bodily orientation.