Have you read this? Apparently sattelite photos have disclosed that 60-70% of all cattle at any given moment are aligned north to south in their fields. Could, researchers ask, they be aligning to the Earth’s magnetic field?
Any guesses on how this is going to play out? Any guesses on what jokes will be told on TV tonight?
Maybe they are just sunning their flanks… Or perhaps they’re pining for the fjords.
Per one of the quotes in the article, they didn’t think it was that, because they had checked the shadows, or something.
No one had considered the fjords thing. It seems to make nearly as much sense as magnetic field sensing cows, tough.
A quick glance out my front window reveals nine cows and one bull. All are currently facing south, with butts pointed north. Twilight here, so no sun or shadows. I’ll have to watch this for a few days.
If it proves true, it’s something I’ve never noticed in over 30 years of being in the beef business, and I’ve never heard of this trait before.
With Google maps it should be easy enough to verify.
According to MSNBC, Google Earth is what the researchers used to gather data. The researchers also said that roe deer did the same thing.
Hey rick, you got a compass?
No, but I have a cow.
Probably all those Cow Magnets they put in their stomachs.
Darn! I was going to say that.
So, cow butts point north? This could be helpful if I ever get lost in a pasture.
In that case, I presume you will want to head south, regardless of where your destination actually is.
On the other hand, if you wanted to get going really, really fast…
My thoughts exactly.
I herd (ha!) about this on NPR today, and the guy said, laughing, that they would attach magnets to their heads and see what happened! I don’t know if he was serious or not.
This all started, by the way, by a guy studying naked mole rats, who always make their bedrooms in the south of the burrow and have a known magnetic sensory input. He wondered if people did the same thing, left in a natural environment, and fired up the Google Earth to try and find tents and see which way people set them up. (I assume this meant one man tents, as no one looking at my cabin tent from above would know where my bed was inside it.) He couldn’t see tents well enough, but he could see lots and lots of cows.
After working out the math on the cow thing, a hunter friend of him told him to try looking for deer beds - oval smooshed places in long grass, and they mostly lined up north/south, too.
It could be motivated by sight and scent, being bovid food herds and heavily preyed upon. Maybe they don’t like the sun in their eyes… or they might like to stay nose to the wind of prevalent Northerlies or Southerlies, in any given area.
I’m wondering what is the best way to mount a cow to my dashboard?
Lots of upscale cars come with the cow mounted on the dash (and seats, etc) straight from the factory.
In my experience, 65 mph is the best way to mount a cow to your dashboard.
Is 10-20% statisticly significant in this case?
Since grazers tend to orient themselves windward or leeward not crosswise to, wind direction needs to be factored in as well.
Then, of course, there’s the fact that cows are, magnetic to some degree. 
Wind, sun and precipitation were accounted for in the stats, according to the NPR piece. Good guesses, though.
He probably was; IIRC they’ve done that with birds.