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Re: [Phys-L] animal magnetism?



A useful tell tale of the prevalent winds is the orientation of runways. I notice many runways are oriented north-south in Oklahoma and North Texas. Before experimental data supported the use of multiple cues for animal navigation, Italians working with pigeons arranged wind vanes to reorient the direction of the wind, in order to distort that sensory avenue on orientation. Others cemented small magnets to experimental subjects; fitted birds with opaque contact lenses (and marveled as pigeons homed to within a mile or so, and walked the rest of the way) and in Germany, placed night migrants in planetaria, where the star view could be rotated. There have been very few studies confirming significant human orientation responding to the geomagnetic field.

Brian Whatcott Altus OK

On 1/14/2014 10:03 PM, John Clement wrote:
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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