Many species are sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field.

Many species use the Earth’s magnetic field lines to navigate.

Many species also align themselves with the Earth's magnetic field, but it is unclear why.

Humans might also possess a magnetic sense, but it is subconscious.

It was one of the most widely mocked studies in the field of animal cognition. A team from Germany and the Czech Republic found that dogs prefer to defecate with their bodies aligned along the Earth's magnetic field (Hart et al. 2013). Really? Do scientists really have nothing better to do than study how dogs poop?

Of course, there is much more to it than that. This study shows that dogs have a special skill: They are sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field. It is now known that other species, including birds, sea turtles, reptiles, insects, bacteria, and plants, also use the geomagnetic field. Humans may also have a magnetic sense, but it is subconscious (Chae et al., 2022). Our brains may sense the magnetic field, but we are not aware of it. As I wrote here previously, it is very challenging to study skills in which animals outperform us. In this case, we scientists must try to imagine what it is like to possess a sense that we........

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