Finding food for thought can be particularly tough in wintertime , when the snow is deep and the prey is hidden . So George Fox have acquire a special technique : they dive headfirst through three feet of snow to come up their unseen quarry . Amazingly , this works — but only when the dodger is facing north-east or southwest .
Robert Krulwich at NPRlooks at the curious fount of the hunting red - dodger and it ’s almost grasp - alike sentience of direction , which was noticed when Czech scientist Jaroslav Cervenyobserved the foxes hunting in the winter and started look at just what take a leak a successful hunt . When they were n’t facing their preferred direction , the Fox were seldom successful . In fact , the preference for jumping NE / SW was there even beyond the wintertime season .
Of course , the fox is n’t the only animal to have some interesting compass - relate riding habit , a late study plant thatdogs favor to ordinate their physical structure along a north - southaxis when they poop . Exactly why that happens is n’t quite decipherable yet , just like the precise meaning behind the foxes jumping - predilection are n’t known either . Though there is a theory that the reasonableness behind it is a “ magnetic common sense ” that foxes practice to hunt . Krulwich explains :
https://gizmodo.com/dogs-align-their-bodies-along-a-north-south-axis-when-t-1493457072
Cerveny believes that foxes have “ a magnetic gumption . ” Not only can they see , hear , touch , taste perception and smack like we do , they ’ve got an redundant natural endowment . They can sense the Earth ’s magnetic field . There are fowl , sharks , turtleneck and ants that can do the same thing . But the slyboots is the first brute we know of to use this sense to hunt .
Gif made from thisDiscovery Channelclip .
AnimalsMagnetic Fields
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