Magnetic alignment in dogs

In recent years several animal species have been shown to detect the Earth’s magnetic field and to use it for a wide range of purposes. These include navigation and orientation. Existence of magnetoreception in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) was suspected because of the homing abilities of many individuals of this species We collected data on directional preferences of dogs under different magnetic field lines (MF) by studying the vector of their body alignment and analyzed it using circular statistics. Dogs excreted with the body aligned along the North–South axis. However, when exposed to small bar magnets, they significantly changed their directional positions. The study suggests that dogs are able to recognize MF. Additional value of this research is that the data was collected by local high school students, which required collaboration with teachers and their parents. We think that this idea has great potential and can be developed at a global scale and to become a citizen-science project involving other high school pupils and their families.