Do dogs orientate themselves by the earth's magnetic field?
20 metres in a north-south direction - and then the inner map is correct again? Researchers have observed strange behaviour in dogs. Is it a magnetic sense of direction?
When dogs go exploring in the forest, they have to find their way back somehow - and they manage to do so even if they can't orientate themselves by terrain features or follow their owner's scent. A team from the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague has now discovered that the sense of magnetism plays an important role in this process.
According to their findings, it is common for dogs to first perform an "orientation run" at the point of their return. They would run around 20 metres along the north-south axis. This could help to align the mental map of the environment, which they create in the first part of their excursion using so-called path integration, with the cardinal points.
The researchers describe how they obtained their data in the scientific journal "eLife". The team led by first author Kateřina Benediktová was headed by Hynek Burda. The Czech researcher is now well known for his experiments on animal magnetic sense. For example, he found evidence that cows orientate themselves along the north-south axis when grazing, just like carp in a vat.
The magnetic field sets the direction
For the current study, the scientists equipped a total of 27 hunting dogs from colleagues at the Hunting and Forestry Institute with a camera and GPS. The animals were then allowed to deviate from the walking route at will and run through the forest. Benediktová and her colleagues then analysed the routes. All in all, they recorded 622 excursions. In almost exactly 60 per cent of cases, the dogs used their noses to find their way back: They simply followed their trail or that of the game they had tracked to return to the starting point. However, in just under 40 per cent of cases, or 223 excursions, the dogs took a different - usually shorter and more direct - route back.
The scientists have so far deduced that the magnetic field played a role in this solely from the existence of this short run along the north-south axis, which they often, but by no means always, observed when the dog sought its own way back. The researchers tried to rule out the possibility that the dogs used other cues. For example, the walks took place in unfamiliar surroundings and the owners had to hide every time their dog disappeared into the forest. They also controlled for wind direction and similar factors in the statistical analysis.
Scientists have previously observed that man's best friend can perceive and utilise the Earth's magnetic field, albeit during an activity that generally requires little orientation: doing small and large business. The dogs also seem to favour a north-south orientation. However, as this is also associated with marking their territory, the orientation towards the cardinal points could have a deeper meaning after all.
For many animal species, navigation with the help of the Earth's magnetic field is well known and equally well studied. Scientists have also found the corresponding magnetic molecules in numerous other animal species, including humans. However, whether this sensory channel also has an effect on behaviour is often disputed. It is also difficult to determine its influence in dogs, as the four-legged friends orientate themselves to many features of their environment and frequently change direction as they run through the terrain.
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