Filed under: Computers
Yes, you read that headline correctly. Somebody took the time to study cows using Google Earth and found out they tend to point north. It isn’t just a coincidence, though - bovines actually have an innate sense of direction that’s in tune with Earth’s magnetic fields.
Scientists from Germany’s University of Duisburg-Essen used Google satellite images to study hundreds of herds of the mammals in England, Ireland, India and the United States. They saw that two-thirds of the cows were oriented in a north-south direction, which supported their theory that the animals, like other breeds such as bees and whales, have tiny organs in their brains that contain magnetite, which is used like a compass.
So what’s in it for the cows? According to the researchers, probably nothing. They say the sense may help cows find their way home or might just be a vestigial sense with no benefits. Other experts have confirmed with what you might have already suspected — this study has probably no practical use, anywhere, ever, to anyone or any cow. [From: Telegraph.co.uk]
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