Having said that, the results smells (pun intended) bad, just because I cannot think of any plausible reason for a non-migrating animal to align with the magnetic field, when defecating or at any other time.
Having said that, the results smells (pun intended) bad, just because I cannot think of any plausible reason for a non-migrating animal to align with the magnetic field, when defecating or at any other time.
Snow foxes seem to hunt better when oriented in direction of the magnetic north.
https://m.phys.org/news/2011-01-predation-foxes-aided-earth-... https://youtu.be/D2SoGHFM18I
(Besides, there's some other oddity there, like that apparently the alignment only matters when the magnetic field is calm)
I got my dog a few years back when she was just a pup. Over the years, she's done things that she was never taught how to do (swim, hunt, bury her food), she just new how to do them instinctually. I believe something like this falls under that category.
And for the record, she took a crap this morning and was pointing directly north/south.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/humans-other-animals...