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      Magnetic Alignment in Carps: Evidence from the Czech Christmas Fish Market

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          Abstract

          While magnetoreception in birds has been studied intensively, the literature on magnetoreception in bony fish, and particularly in non-migratory fish, is quite scarce. We examined alignment of common carps ( Cyprinus carpio) at traditional Christmas sale in the Czech Republic. The sample comprised measurements of the directional bearings in 14,537 individual fish, distributed among 80 large circular plastic tubs, at 25 localities in the Czech Republic, during 817 sampling sessions, on seven subsequent days in December 2011. We found that carps displayed a statistically highly significant spontaneous preference to align their bodies along the North-South axis. In the absence of any other common orientation cues which could explain this directional preference, we attribute the alignment of the fish to the geomagnetic field lines. It is apparent that the display of magnetic alignment is a simple experimental paradigm of great heuristic potential.

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          Most cited references12

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          Structure and function of the vertebrate magnetic sense.

          Some vertebrates can navigate over long distances using the Earth's magnetic field, but the sensory system that they use to do so has remained a mystery. Here we describe the key components of a magnetic sense underpinning this navigational ability in a single species, the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). We report behavioural and electrophysiological responses to magnetic fields and identify an area in the nose of the trout where candidate magnetoreceptor cells are located. We have tracked the sensory pathway from these newly identified candidate magnetoreceptor cells to the brain and associated the system with a learned response to magnetic fields.
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            Magnetic alignment in grazing and resting cattle and deer.

            We demonstrate by means of simple, noninvasive methods (analysis of satellite images, field observations, and measuring "deer beds" in snow) that domestic cattle (n = 8,510 in 308 pastures) across the globe, and grazing and resting red and roe deer (n = 2,974 at 241 localities), align their body axes in roughly a north-south direction. Direct observations of roe deer revealed that animals orient their heads northward when grazing or resting. Amazingly, this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters. Because wind and light conditions could be excluded as a common denominator determining the body axis orientation, magnetic alignment is the most parsimonious explanation. To test the hypothesis that cattle orient their body axes along the field lines of the Earth's magnetic field, we analyzed the body orientation of cattle from localities with high magnetic declination. Here, magnetic north was a better predictor than geographic north. This study reveals the magnetic alignment in large mammals based on statistically sufficient sample sizes. Our findings open horizons for the study of magnetoreception in general and are of potential significance for applied ethology (husbandry, animal welfare). They challenge neuroscientists and biophysics to explain the proximate mechanisms.
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              Extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields disrupt magnetic alignment of ruminants.

              Resting and grazing cattle and deer tend to align their body axes in the geomagnetic North-South direction. The mechanism(s) that underlie this behavior remain unknown. Here, we show that extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELFMFs) generated by high-voltage power lines disrupt alignment of the bodies of these animals with the geomagnetic field. Body orientation of cattle and roe deer was random on pastures under or near power lines. Moreover, cattle exposed to various magnetic fields directly beneath or in the vicinity of power lines trending in various magnetic directions exhibited distinct patterns of alignment. The disturbing effect of the ELFMFs on body alignment diminished with the distance from conductors. These findings constitute evidence for magnetic sensation in large mammals as well as evidence of an overt behavioral reaction to weak ELFMFs in vertebrates. The demonstrated reaction to weak ELFMFs implies effects at the cellular and molecular levels.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1932-6203
                2012
                5 December 2012
                : 7
                : 12
                : e51100
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic
                [2 ]Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Praha, Czech Republic
                [3 ]Department of General Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
                University of Houston, United States of America
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: V. Hart TK P. Nemec P. Novakova MJ HB. Performed the experiments: V. Hart TK P. Novakova MJ SB JC V. Hanzal EPM KS CV HB. Analyzed the data: P. Nemec VB HB. Wrote the paper: HB PN SB EPM V. Hart.

                Article
                PONE-D-12-23466
                10.1371/journal.pone.0051100
                3515494
                23227241
                45f0dbc2-39ad-4686-8470-990dd67bcd27
                Copyright @ 2012

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 2 August 2012
                : 31 October 2012
                Page count
                Pages: 7
                Funding
                The study was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (Grant 506/11/2121 to HB) and Grant Agency of the Charles University [Grant 116510 to PN]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Agriculture
                Animal Management
                Animal Behavior
                Aquaculture
                Fish Farming
                Biology
                Ecology
                Behavioral Ecology
                Marine Biology
                Fisheries Science
                Model Organisms
                Animal Models
                Neuroscience
                Sensory Perception
                Zoology
                Animal Behavior
                Social and Behavioral Sciences
                Veterinary Science
                Animal Management
                Animal Behavior

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

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