Could Earth's Magnetic Alignment Influence when Dog's Poop?

Ever notice how dogs like to gather around each other when they're doing their business (for lack of a better word)? Well, a recent study by researchers from the Czech Republic and Germany shows that this may be due to the animal's sense of Earth's magnetic field. In other words, this influences where the animals go to the bathroom depending on the Earth's north-south axis.

Researchers examined 70 dogs during 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations in the duration of a two-year-period. They found that when dogs used the bathroom, they preferred to go at a time when their body was in alignment with the north-south axis under calm magnetic field conditions.

However, as to why dogs prefered to excrete bodily fluids during these conditions is still a mystery and requires more research, according to the study authors.

"It is still enigmatic why the dogs do align at all, whether they do it 'consciously' ... or whether its reception is controlled on the vegetative level (they 'feel better/more comfortable or worse/less comfortable' in a certain direction)," the researchers note, via a press release. "Our analysis of the raw data ... indicates that dogs not only prefer N-S direction, but at the same time they also avoid E-W direction."

As this is the first study to examine how dogs are sensitive to the magnetic alignment, they aren't the only animals to also follow in a similar matter. Did you know that some types of fish also demonstrate this very same thing?

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Frontiers in Zoology.