So apparently cows line themselves up with the earth’s magnetic field.

Maybe. Probably. The evidence is somewhat inconclusive.

A 2008 study by German zoologist Hynek Burda showed that cattle, like birds, lobsters, and turtles (among others), use magneto-reception, the ability to detect the magnetic field and to perceive direction and location based on it. Burda and his team used data from Google Earth in the form of images of cattle to determine whether the cattle tend to align themselves with the magnetic field or not.

A follow-up study showed that the alignment disappeared near and around power lights, which further supports Burda’s original findings as it is suggested that power lines disrupt magneto-sensing.

However, a 2011 study by a group of Czech researchers was unable to replicate Burda’s Google Earth-supported findings using different images. In addition, after looking at Burda’s original images, the Czech team’s lead researcher, Lukas Jelinek, stated that the original phenomenon “[was] not as fantastic as it was presented.”

One key difference, however, between the original and the Czech studies is that Burda analyzed the herds as a whole, while Jelinek examined individual cows. Researcher Sönke Johnsen adds support to Burda’s original results by stating that not only should some of Jelinek’s images not have been analyzed, but that the proper unit of measurement is more likely at the level of the herd rather than the individual cow.

So why there appears to be a bit of contradictory evidence, it seems like there’s a fair number of scientists who group cattle with other animals who utilize magneto-reception.

Cool, huh?