A pounce and a miss

7 thoughts on “A pounce and a miss”

1. Neverrrr mind🐾🐾

2. As Dr Coyne had had a posting of wrongs and changes in our lives of earlier in this week ? Why, I myself have, as This Fox, soooo .k n o w n. of this countenance and demeanor ! the likes of this type of f a i l u r e … …

   Often.

   As m’Darlin’ Mr Waylon Jennings states here thus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF9jubKjVAk !

   ” … … courtin’ disaster !
   We were the Wild Ones !
   … … couldn’t control !
   We didn’t .k n o w. we could fail … … ”

   Too, … … “we had the town up a tree !”
   = a darling animal.

   Blue

3. appear to use the Earth’s magnetic field to zero in on the hapless prey

   Sorry for the double pun re recent science posts, but this may be an epic magnetic moment.

   “It’s actually with humans that the whole cow compass affair started: Sabine Begall had been studying naked mole rats, which always sleep on the south side of their burrows, and she got to wondering whether sleeping humans also had a preference.

   Begall tried using Google Earth to examine campsites to see if there was a pattern, but it turned out to be very hard to see which way people were sleeping in tents. But cows were much more visible, and they indeed showed a pattern.

   However, not everyone agrees. In January 2011 another Czech team did their own analysis of satellite photos of cows across Europe, and found no alignment (Hert J, Jelinek L, Pekarek L & Pavlicek A 2011, “No alignment of cattle along geomagnetic field lines found”,Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, vol. 197, no. 6, pp. 677-682, doi:10.1007/s00359-011-0628-7).

   But it doesn’t end there. In November, Begall’s team published a response, in which they re-analysed the same photos. They claim that the second study had used a different statistical technique and included a lot of “noise” in their data, including poor quality photos, pastures on slopes and herds near power lines, which supposedly disrupt the magnetic effect (see Begall S, Burda H, Červený J, Gerter O, Neef-Weisse J & Němec P 2011, “Further support for the alignment of cattle along magnetic field lines: reply to Hert et al.” Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, vol. 197, no. 12, pp. 1127-1133, doi:10.1007/s00359-011-0674-1).

   So the great magnetic cow controversy rages on.”

   [ https://lostinscience.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/magnetic-cows-test-their-mettle/ ]

   A moo subject, it seems.

   The fox experiments were derived in the same statistically objectionable manner by the same researchers, I think. Nothing like doubling down on your methods in the face of criticism.

   1. How udderly hilarious. I vote a candidate for the Ig Noble prize for the lot of them, regardless of the outcome.

      1. The Igs are for “research that makes you laugh … and then think”, or alternatively for “research which cannot – or should not – be replicated” (both slogans are used).
         The “cannot – should not” criterion plainly doesn’t apply since the research has been replicated, and I can’t see cows (or tent-bound humans who likely align their tents perpendicular to navigation paths through camp sites) being harmed by satellite photography. The “laugh then think” criterion would probably apply but the physiological basis of navigation systems happens to be an interesting question (particularly since to me it is obvious that it survives magnetic reversals just fine and dandy). So it would only get through on the “laugh” side of things.
         I’d hope something better comes up than this. It’s actually quite interesting work, even if the methods are iffy.

4. 🙂

   I love this fox dive, the way his legs land on the snow when his head’s under

5. Have they evolved a thicker Skull for this behaviour ? otherwise if he hits a rock underneath the Snow he,s going to have one helluva Headache, similr to the many Wily Coyote had. lol

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