LONDON
: The cow is considered sacred in India. Now scientists know it is also a
dependable, navigational
compass.
Scientists watched
thousands of Google images of the humble quadruped in India, Britain, Ireland,
USA to conclude cows automatically point to the north because they have their
own inbuilt compasses aligning with the earth's magnetic
field.
Although, in many cases,
the images were not clear enough to determine which way the cattle were facing
they were aligned on a north/south
axis.
The research was carried
out by Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen,
according to a report in The
Telegraph.
The innate ability
of cows to find north is believed to be a relic from the days when their wild
ancestors needed an accurate sense of direction to migrate across the plains of
Africa, Asia and Europe.
Huge
variations in the wind direction and sunlight in the areas where the beasts were
found meant that the scientists were able to rule out those factors as being
responsible for the direction they were
facing.
"We conclude that the
magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the
observed alignment," the scientists wrote in an article published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
journal.
It is already known
that many species use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate across the planet.
Examples include migratory turtles, salmon, termites and
birds.
Animals are thought to
use their own internal magnets made of crystals of magnetite. Homing pigeons
have a small amount of the substance on their beaks, which gives them their
uncannily accurate powers of navigation.