Do Dogs Use Magnetoreception to Return Home?

How Do Dogs Find Their Way Home? They Might Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field

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Photo by Carol Duff

by Courtney Sexton/Smithsonianmag.com

Last week, Cleo the four-year-old yellow Labrador retriever showed up on the doorstep of the home her family moved away from two years ago, reports Caitlin O’Kane for CBS News.

As it turns out, Cleo traveled nearly 60 miles from her current home in Kansas to her old one in Missouri. Cleo is just one of many dogs who have made headlines for their homing instincts; in 1924, for example, a collie known as “Bobbie the Wonder Dog” traveled 2,800 miles in the dead of winter to be reunited with his people.

Now, scientists suggest these incredible feats of navigation are possible in part due to Earth’s geomagnetic field, according to a new study published in the journal eLife.



Researchers led by biologists Kateřina Benediktová and Hynek Burda of the Czech University of Life Sciences Department of Game Management and Wildlife Biology outfitted 27 hunting dogs representing 10 different breeds with GPS collars and action cameras, and tracked them in more than 600 excursions over the course of three years, Michael Thomsen reports for Daily Mail.

The dogs were driven to a location, led on-leash into a forested area, and then released to run where they pleased. The team only focused on dogs that ventured

Read Full Article at SmithsonianMag.com

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1 COMMENT

  1. Sheldrakes experiment with “dogs that know their owners are coming home” is worth watching.
    My observation is all animals vary in their intuitive skills, including people. Some people get lost easy, and others can find their way through thicket or swamp without instruments.
    Wolves and foxes, are excellent navigators. Bonding to the pack or den facilitates telepathy.

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