Let a cow-pass be your guide

cows1.jpg  There’s good news for those lost in vast pastures with no sense of direction.

Let a cow be your compass.

You’ll know this if you’ve already read today’s issue of “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” Some German and Czech researchers found that most cows align to the north and south, seemingly drawn to magnetic poles.

Ummm, give me a minute to call cowpies on this study. I grew up on a dairy farm, and our cows didn’t seem to have a directional preference. Maybe they were directionally challenged. Maybe they were rebels.

I even called a relative to make sure I hadn’t missed something in my bovine-bound past. Nope, as usual, the cattle were facing any which way.

I hope no one is lost out there.

Susan Simpson, Education Writer 



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Comments

More likely they face prevailing winds to enhance detection of predators.

That’s a good thing to know! I do a lot of running outdoors and usually I don’t even look at where I am going, I just run as far as I can and turn back (about 1-2 hours normally). There are times that I have not been sure where I am because I am somewhere out of the city with just a few farms around. Now I’ll know how to get back :)

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