Red foxes hunting small animals show a specific behaviour known as 'mousing'. The fox jumps high, so that it surprises its prey from above. Hearing seems to be the primary sense for precise prey location in high vegetation or under snow where it cannot be detected with visual cues. A fox preparing for the jump displays a high degree of auditory attention. Foxes on the prowl tend to direct their jumps in a roughly north-eastern compass direction. When foxes are hunting in high vegetation and under snow cover, successful attacks are tightly clustered to the north, while attacks in other directions are largely unsuccessful. The direction of attacks was independent of time of day, season of the year, cloud cover and wind direction. We suggest that this directional preference represents a case of magnetic alignment and enhances the precision of hunting attacks.

Department of Forest Protection and Game Management Faculty of Forestry Wildlife and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Kamýcká 129 165 21 Prague 6 Suchdol Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Begall S., Cerveny J., Neef J., Vojtech O., Burda H. 2008. Magnetic alignment in grazing and resting cattle and deer. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 13 451–13 455 10.1073/pnas.0803650105 (doi:10.1073/pnas.0803650105) PubMed DOI PMC

Burda H., Begall S., Cerveny J., Neef J., Nemec P. 2009. Extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields disrupt magnetic alignment of ruminants. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 5708–5713 10.1073/pnas.0811194106 (doi:10.1073/pnas.0811194106) PubMed DOI PMC

Wiltschko R., Wiltschko W. 1995. Magnetic orientation in animals. Berlin, Germany: Springer

Schlegel P. A. 2008. Magnetic and other non-visual orientation mechanisms in some cave and surface urodeles. J. Ethol. 26, 347–359 10.1007/s10164-007-0071-y (doi:10.1007/s10164-007-0071-y) DOI

Phillips J. B. 1996. Magnetic navigation. J. Theor. Biol. 180, 309–319 10.1006/jtbi.1996.0105 (doi:10.1006/jtbi.1996.0105) DOI

Phillips J. B., Borland S. C., Freake M. J., Brassart J., Kirschvink J. L. 2002. ‘Fixed-axis’ magnetic orientation by an amphibian: non-shoreward-directed compass orientation, misdirected homing or positioning a magnetite-based map detector in a consistent alignment relative to the magnetic field? J. Exp. Biol. 205, 3903–3914 PubMed

Phillips J. B., Muheim R., Jorge P. E. 2010. A behavioral perspective on the biophysics of the light-dependent magnetic compass: a link between directional and spatial perception? J. Exp. Biol. 213, 3247–3255 10.1242/jeb.020792 (doi:10.1242/jeb.020792) PubMed DOI

Phillips J. B. 1986. Two magnetoreception pathways in a migratory salamander. Science 233, 765–767 10.1126/science.3738508 (doi:10.1126/science.3738508) PubMed DOI

Wiltschko W., Wiltschko R. 1972. Magnetic compass of European robins. Science 176, 62–64 10.1126/science.176.4030.62 (doi:10.1126/science.176.4030.62) PubMed DOI

Freake M. J., Muheim R., Phillips J. B. 2006. Magnetic maps in animals—a theory comes of age? Quart. Rev. Biol. 81, 327–347 10.1086/511528 (doi:10.1086/511528) PubMed DOI

Lohmann K. J. 2010. Magnetic-field perception. Nature 464, 1140–1142 10.1038/4641140a (doi:10.1038/4641140a) PubMed DOI

Knudsen E. I., Konishi M. 1978. A neural map of auditory space in the owl. Science 200, 795–797 10.1126/science.644324 (doi:10.1126/science.644324) PubMed DOI

Thalau P., Ritz T., Burda H., Wegner R. E., Wiltschko R. 2006. The magnetic compass mechanisms of birds and rodents are based on different physical principles. J. R. Soc. Interface 3, 583–587 10.1098/rsif.2006.0130 (doi:10.1098/rsif.2006.0130) PubMed DOI PMC

Ritz T., Adem S., Schulten K. 2000. A model for photoreceptor based magnetoreception in birds. Biophys. J. 78, 707–718 10.1016/S0006-3495(00)76629-X (doi:10.1016/S0006-3495(00)76629-X) PubMed DOI PMC

Rodgers C. T., Hore P. J. 2009. Chemical magnetoreception in birds: the radical pair mechanism. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 353–360 10.1073/pnas.0711968106 (doi:10.1073/pnas.0711968106) PubMed DOI PMC

Turning preference in dogs: North attracts while south repels

Ectosymbionts alter spontaneous responses to the Earth's magnetic field in a crustacean

Dogs can be trained to find a bar magnet

Magnetoreception in the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus): influence of weak frequency-modulated radio frequency fields

Spontaneous expression of magnetic compass orientation in an epigeic rodent: the bank vole, Clethrionomys glareolus

Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth's magnetic field

Cattle on pastures do align along the North-South axis, but the alignment depends on herd density

Directional compass preference for landing in water birds

Magnetic alignment in carps: evidence from the Czech christmas fish market