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Dogs Poop in Alignment with Earth's Magnetic Field

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F

fluffydelusions

Member
Dogs seem to have an awful lot of ritual before hunkering down and soiling the sidewalk. It’s not uncommon to see a dog owner—plastic bag in hand—rolling his eyes as his furry companion sniffs and spins, getting just so before hunkering down to do the least considerate thing possible.

But for whatever its worth, all that spinning is far from arbitrary. What dog owners witness is a small and furry version of the aurora borealis and a link between species and environment that’s as holistic and beautiful as a dog pooping can be. A team of Czech and German researchers found that dogs actually align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field when they poop.

Proving at least that they’re really devoted to their work, the researchers measured the direction of the body axis of 70 dogs from 37 breeds during 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations over the course of two years, and found that dogs “prefer to excrete with the body being aligned along the North-south axis under calm magnetic field conditions.” They fittingly published their results in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.

You might wonder why dogs bother to do this, and uh, so do the researchers.

It is still enigmatic why the dogs do align at all, whether they do it ‘consciously’ (i.e., whether the magnetic field is sensorial perceived (the dogs ‘see,’ ‘hear’ or ‘smell’ the compass direction or perceive it as a haptic stimulus) or whether its reception is controlled on the vegetative level (they ‘feel better/more comfortable or worse/less comfortable’ in a certain direction). Our analysis of the raw data (not shown here) indicates that dogs not only prefer N-S direction, but at the same time they also avoid E-W direction.

This isn’t the only example of animals seemingly sensing the Earth’s magnetic field. Birds, turtles, and fish are known to use magnetic guidance while migrating. Cattle and deer are known to graze on a north-south axis—as with defecating dogs, this is magnetic north, not the geographic one. Some bats navigate using a magnetic compass and given the large ranges of the dog’s closest relatives in the wild, wolves, scientists suspected that canines might also sense the magnetic field.

But this was perhaps the first time that magnetic sensitivity was proven in dogs, and it was also the first time that a predictable behavioral reaction to the fluctuations in the magnetic field—magnetic storms, often as resulting from solar flares—was proven in a mammal.

If you’re out walking your dog later, and he sidles up and pees on a tree facing east-west, don’t be terribly surprised. The magnetic consciousness was observed only in dogs off leash, in the middle of a field. All things considered, the owner matters more to the dog than the Earth’s magnetic field; a nice little ego-booster that you’ll need as you bend over to pick up warm dog droppings.
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http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/dogs-poop-in-alignment-with-earths-magnetic-field

Source(down atm)
http://www.frontiersinzoology.com/content/10/1/80/abstract
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
So in a pinch you could use a pooping dog as a compass?

Good to know.
 
G

Goldrush

Member
Considering a leash is enough to confuse them, if we dump a man in the middle of wood, away from toilets and privacy concerns that may direct us where to poop, maybe we will instinctively do this also.
 
W

Wilsongt

Member
Well, that explains why my dog refuses to shit quickly and instead runs around the whole area for as long as possible.
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Holy shit I just verified guys, and for some reason I piss exactly in alignment with the magnetic north when at home. Seriously. I never pissed by aligning myself with the toilet, I always stood at an angle for whatever reason. Probably a coincidence, but funny.
 
C

comedy bomb

Banned
I was watching North America and they had a bit on foxes hunting. They apparently nearly always miss the "mouse dive" unless they are facing magnetic north.
 
T

Thursday War

Banned
ZealousD said:
This isn't so unusual. Men have a very specific formula they work with when occupying urinals.

http://www.drinknation.com/fun/urinaltest
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30 out of 60
Well, you barely passed. Odds are in favour that you are actually a female and have never experienced a male rest facility in all it's glory. That, or you're a guy who doesn't get out much. If we were you, we wouldn't be showin' your score off to any of our friends, since they can probably pee way better than you can.
Click to expand...
:lol
 
T

Thursday War

Banned
Trojita said:
My poop is science.

wow
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image.php
 
I

injurai

Banned
Ether_Snake said:
Holy shit I just verified guys, and for some reason I piss exactly in alignment with the magnetic north when at home. Seriously. I never pissed by aligning myself with the toilet, I always stood at an angle for whatever reason. Probably a coincidence, but funny.
Click to expand...


i just realized I do too at home, but I think it more has to do with angling myself away from the wall... or maybe I'm in the twilight zone.
 
I

ItAintEasyBeinCheesy

it's 4th of July in my asshole
My dogs must do this, takes one of them ages to get just the right spot. The other one sort of does it but yesterday she just started shitting and walking so it was spreading out.
 
terrisus

terrisus

Member
fluffydelusions said:
It is still enigmatic why the dogs do align at all, whether they do it ‘consciously’ (i.e., whether the magnetic field is sensorial perceived (the dogs ‘see,’ ‘hear’ or ‘smell’ the compass direction or perceive it as a haptic stimulus) or whether its reception is controlled on the vegetative level (they ‘feel better/more comfortable or worse/less comfortable’ in a certain direction). Our analysis of the raw data (not shown here) indicates that dogs not only prefer N-S direction, but at the same time they also avoid E-W direction.
Click to expand...

The unclosed parenthesis in this paragraph bothers me.
 
P

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
Aligning is one thing, but how do they decide where to poop? My dog is incredibly indecisive. She will sometimes actually already get in the shitting crouched position, and then suddenly change her mind and want to run somewhere else to poop. :/
 
karasu

karasu

Member
This is going to be revealed as a Dalek plot or some shit. I know it. The 26 planets are going to align and we'll all be shitting on one another.
 
P

Platy

Member
My teacher did an scupture that he says it is aligned with the earth

I can now say that the sculture is dogshit =P
 
S

SBH

Member
So does the laying down thing have similar meaning, besides the one that grass/whatever goes down when they circle around? I mean do they lie down according to magnetic fields also?
 
X

XT Vengeance

Member
My dogs do this. I never really noticed the directional connection, but our back porch faces west, and the dogs are always standing parallel to the house when they shit. Fucking weird.
 
A

Air

Banned
As weird as the study is, I do find it fascinating. I wonder how that kind of stuff had an effect on early humans?
 
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