SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the what-happens-when-you-give-a-dog-an-MRI? dept.
The real reason dogs always find their way home - breakthrough study:
Earth's magnetic field may be harnessed by dogs to help them navigate, researchers have revealed. A group of researchers from the Czech University of Life Sciences and Virginia Tech tracked the navigation abilities of 27 different dogs from 10 breeds over three years.
The scientists attached a GPS collar and camera mount to each dog and periodically released them from their leash during walks in a forested area.
After being released, each dog ran deeper into the woods, and after a certain distance they were called back to their owners.
At this point they all conducted what researchers described as a 'compass run.'
This entailed a short dash of approximately 65ft (20m) that closely tracked with the Earth's north-south geomagnetic axis.
[...] Researchers are now convinced this helped the dogs orient themselves for the return trip.
The researchers wrote in a summary of their findings in the online journal eLife: "It is unlikely that the direct involvement of visual, olfactory or celestial cues can explain the highly stereotyped and consistent ~north south alignment of the compass run.
"For example, the forested habitat and dense vegetation of the study sites make visual piloting unreliable and, in many cases, not possible."
Journal Reference:
Hrag Pailian, Susan E. Carey, Justin Halberda, et al. Age and Species Comparisons of Visual Mental Manipulation Ability as Evidence for its Development and Evolution [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-64666-1)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2020, @01:58PM
Why wouldn't they? They wouldn't have access to a map, but they would have some memory of where they'd been.
Using magnetism is not something that really explains it very well. As anybody who hasn't forgotten how maps and compasses work, I can tell you that just knowing where magnetic north is doesn't really help you that much when you're trying to find something that isn't along the arc that takes you there. Especially, if you're someplace where you have to detour around obstacles.
You'd need something else to go along with that, like memory of what you saw and experienced on your way, in order to find your way back. Or, you'd really need a map and some landmarks to use for triangulation.