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Re: [Phys-L] animal magnetism?

Perhaps this explains why moss tend to grow on the North side of a tree

:-)

Bob at PC
________________________________________
From: Phys-l [phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] on behalf of John Clement [clement@hal-pc.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 11:03 PM
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org; betwys1@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] animal magnetism?

Could it be a wind effect? Since the wind tends to blow from W to E this
would carry the scent to the side and predators of dogs would be more easily
sensed than if the wind were blowing into the face. Of course one might
expect that a "tail" wind would be ideal. But perhaps the behavior is left
over and no longer has any survival value. Being able so sense the magnetic
field does have some advantage in being able to navigate. I understand
there are societies where they use absolute compass directions rather than
referring to L or R and people in these groups always know the direction of
the compass points. Knowing this may be partially due to humans being able
to sense the magnitic lines. They pointed out in the article that there may
be a magnetic sense in humans.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


On 1/14/2014 1:46 PM, Anthony Lapinski wrote:
I've heard of birds flying along Earth's magnetic field lines for
navigation, but I am baffled by this recent story below:


www.livescience.com/42317-dogs-poop-along-north-south-magnetic-lines.h
tml


True, there are interesting questions of purpose and
mechanism, but the leading question would concern the
survival value of such orientation.
Given that dogs sample the odors of other animals, what
competitive advantage might be gained in this way?

Brian Whatcott Altus OK
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