Google Earth shows cows point north, no bull
The Earth's magnetic fields causes herds of cows to point in the same direction, claim scientists.
Boffins noted that many small animals have a "magnetic compass" which can help their sense of direction or impact their behavior.
To test if the same was true for larger creatures the researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany did the same thing any self respecting scientist would do, loaded Google.
They looked at Google Earth images of 8,510 grazing and resting cattle in 308 pasture plains across the globe, recording which direction cows pointed.
Even though after zooming in the researchers were unable to distinguish the cows head from its arse (are they really scientists?) they confirmed the cattle tend to align their bodies in a north-south direction.
Expert Dr Sabine Begall said: "Sometimes it took hours and hours to find some pictures with good resolution,
"In Africa and South America, the cattle (were) shifted slightly to a more north-eastern-south-western direction.
"But it is known that the Earth's magnetic field is much weaker there,"
The researchers also recorded the body positions of 2,974 wild deer in 277 locations across the Czech Republic they fond that the majority of deer face northward but about one-third of the deer faced southward, odd.
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