No evidence for magnetic alignment in domestic dogs in urban parks
Abstract
Spontaneous Magnetic Alignment (SMA), or the phenomenon by which animals orientate their bodies non-randomly with respect to a magnetic field, has been demonstrated in many taxa. While a 2013 study could only detect SMA in domestic dogs under calm magnetic field conditions, a more recent study has reported an extremely strong effect of magnetic alignment in individuals observed in urban dog parks. Here, we replicate their methods by measuring the magnetic orientation of dogs during excretion (urination or defecation) in five dog parks in the city of Lyon, France. We report no detectable SMA, though the alignment of the dogs was non-random relative to the orientation of the parks in which they were located. We suggest that urban dog parks present many distractions to dogs, all of which have the potential to influence the orientation of dogs during excretion. We discuss the potential of unconscious observer bias by the volunteer members of the public who collected the data. Though we recognise the benefits of citizen science, we recommend that in such cases caution be exercised and safeguards put into place to minimise observer bias.
Citation
Rouviere , A & Ruxton , G D 2021 , ' No evidence for magnetic alignment in domestic dogs in urban parks ' , Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research , vol. In Press . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2021.11.005
Publication
Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1558-7878Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2021.11.005.
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