With its exceptional hearing, the red fox can detect when a small animal is scurrying around up to 3 feet under the snow, and their high jump to surprise and catch that animal — called “mousing” — is pretty spectacular. But even more spectacular is what we can’t see: the possible influence of magnetic alignment.
Jaroslav ΔervenΓ½ and a large research team observed almost 600 mousing jumps by 84 foxes, and based on the data, they proposed that “…mousing red foxes may use the magnetic field as a βrange finderβ or targeting system to measure distance to its prey…” From Ed Yong in 2011:
If they pounced to the north-east, they killed on 73% of their attacks; if they jumped in the opposite direction, they success rate stayed at 60%. In all other directions, only 18% of their pounces were successful…Β
Many animals have magnetoreception capabilities including birds, bats, mice, mole rats, fruit flies, honeybees, turtles, lobsters, sharks and stingrays.
If ΔervenΓ½ is correct, then the red fox is unique in many ways.Β It would be the first animal known to use a magnetic sense to hunt, and the first to use magnetic fields to estimateΒ distanceΒ rather than direction or position.
File under:Β magnetic field. Related jumping: pronking springboks.
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