Bovine always turns its head in one direction

If you get lost in the countryside without a compass, don't be in a hurry. According to German scientists, you can determine the direction by observing the herds.

Have you ever noticed that the cattle always turn their head in one direction. Images from Google Earth show that buffaloes and cows tend to stand in the north-south axis, in which their heads are pointing north.

Wild deer have similar behavior, but hunters have not been paying attention to this phenomenon for thousands of years.

Many scientists claim that Earth's magnetic field can affect the behavior of animals.

Cattle turn their heads north while eating grass and resting.
Photo: Dailymail.co.uk.

In fact, the Earth is a giant magnet, with the north pole and the south pole close to the two poles. Many animals - including birds and salmon - use Earth's magnetic field to navigate during migration. Some studies also demonstrate that bats, a mammal, also have the ability to orientate by magnetic fields.

Dr. Sabine Begall and colleagues from Duisburg-Essen University (Germany) conducted research on cattle to find out if they were capable of orientation based on Earth's magnetic field. They collected images of 8,510 buffaloes, crawling at 308 grasslands across the planet through Google Earth. Animals are taken in many positions: grazing, resting, standing in the flock, feeding. Since all images are taken from satellites, it is difficult to find high resolution images. Experts cannot distinguish the heads and tails of animals, but they find that they tend to stand along the north-south axis.

Deer always stand in the north-south direction.Photo: BBC.

"In Africa and South America, the direction of cattle has a small difference. Instead of standing in the north-south direction, they often face northeast or southwest. We all know that the magnetic field in Africa. and South America is much weaker than other regions, " Sabine said.

Research results exclude the assumption that the position of the sun and wind direction affects the standing posture of the animal.

The team also recorded the posture of 2,974 wild deer at 277 locations in the Czech Republic. They found that about two-thirds of them always turned their heads north when eating and sleeping, the rest turned their heads south. According to Sabine, it could be a behavior that helps deer deal with predators.

"We conclude that the Earth's magnetic field is the main cause of cattle tend to face north. That explains why their ancestors could make migrations thousands of kilometers from Africa to Asia and Europe, " Sabine said.