Google's magnetic cows

I love Google. I really do. As big brother as they kinda are.. I still love them. Here was an interesting bit I found this evening and wanted to share. Apparently cows may have some sort of magnetic sense that causes them to stand in a N/S facing direction sometimes. I do that too. Sometimes. Another interesting myth/old wives tale/factoid (which you should know already.. but let me remind you like "That Guy"), is that cows sometimes lay down when it is going to rain. This isnt proven, but I have noticed it before (having grown up across the street from a farm). I just read that this could be caused by the barometric pressure causing the cows stomachs to be upset causing them to lie down. Weird. Moving on... here is why I am posting!

"German scientists using satellite images posted online by the Google Earth software program have observed something that has escaped the notice of farmers, herders and hunters for thousands of years: Cattle grazing or at rest tend to orient their bodies in a north-south direction just like a compass needle.

Studying photographs of 8,510 cattle in 308 herds from around the world, zoologists Sabine Begall and Hynek Burda of the University of Duisburg-Essen and their colleagues found that two out of every three animals in the pictures were oriented in a direction roughly pointing to magnetic north."

Click here for the rest of the article! Click here for the official release (also noted in article) from PNAS (hehe...PNAS... oh god it's like I'm 15)